Diet drinks linked to risk of stroke and dementia

For Coke Zero addicts like myself, this is not good. As I don't smoke, or take alcohol or other drugs, Coke Zero is all my dietary vices in one. While it's only 3-5% of the people surveyed who developed a stroke or dementia, the researchers make it very clear that there are so many unknowns about artificial sweeteners and diet drinks that it would be foolish to think the consequences are limited to only 5%. The scientific evidence against artificial sweeteners seems to be growing all the time:

Diet drinks linked to risk of stroke and dementia

People who consume diet drinks every day are almost three times more likely to suffer a stroke or dementia, research suggests.
Having at least one diet drink a day increased the risk compared to consuming less than one diet drink a week, a study found.
However, researchers found no link between sugary drinks and an increased risk of stroke and dementia, though they warned people not to view sugary drinks as a “healthy option”.
Due to the fact that the study is observational and based on food questionnaires, they said further studies were needed on the links between drinks, dementia and stroke.
The new research, published in the American Heart Association’s journal Stroke, is based on data for more than 4,300 people taking part in the Framingham Heart Study.
Those in the stroke arm of the study were over 45, while those in the dementia arm were over 60.
All participants filled in questionnaires on their food and drink intake at three separate points during the 1990s.
Researchers then followed the group for 10 years, noting 97 cases of stroke during that period, and 81 cases of dementia (63 cases were specifically Alzheimer’s disease).
After adjusting for factors that could influence the results, such as age, sex, education, calorie intake, exercise and smoking, people who had at least one diet drink a day had an almost three times increased risk of dementia or stroke.
Blood pressure
The researchers said future studies should look at the effect of diet drinks on factors known to increase the risk of stroke and dementia, such as high blood pressure. “As the consumption of artificially sweetened soft drinks is increasing in the community, along with the prevalence of stroke and dementia, future research is needed,” they added.
Matthew Pase, senior fellow in the department of neurology at Boston University school of medicine, said: “Our study shows a need to put more research into this area given how often people drink artificially sweetened beverages.
“Although we did not find an association between stroke or dementia and the consumption of sugary drinks, this certainly does not mean they are a healthy option.
“We recommend that people drink water on a regular basis instead of sugary or artificially sweetened beverages.”
He added: “Even if someone is three times as likely to develop stroke or dementia, it is by no means a certain fate.
“In our study, 3 per cent of the people had a new stroke and 5 per cent developed dementia, so we’re still talking about a small number of people developing either stroke or dementia.”
Rachel Johnson, past chairwoman of the American Heart Association’s Nutrition Committee and professor of nutrition at the University of Vermont, said: “We know that limiting added sugars is an important strategy to support good nutrition and healthy body weights, and until we know more, people should use artificially sweetened drinks cautiously.
“They may have a role for people with diabetes and in weight loss, but we encourage people to drink water, low-fat milk or other beverages without added sweeteners.” – (PA)

I'd love to be able to retrain my tastebuds to find water - even sparkling water - as tasty as Coke Zero! Grrr.

Do you believe diet drinks are worse for your health than full sugar drinks?

The_Valeyard

Like with most things in life.....

Everything in moderation.

andekwarhola

Was actually drinking a can of Pepsi Max (albeit a relatively rare one) when I spotted the article online earlier.

Finished the can, th

What was I saying again?

The_Valeyard

andekwarhola wrote: »

Was actually drinking a can of Pepsi Max (albeit a relatively rare one) when I spotted the article online earlier.

Finished the can, th

What was I saying again?

That you should really be drinking coke cola

InTheTrees

Once a day

I can't stand that stuff.
I can taste that fake sugar taste for days afterwards.

andekwarhola

Poll should have an option people like me can select.

Have a can about once a week, often longer.

The_Valeyard

The_Valeyard wrote: »

Like with most things in life.....

Everything in moderation.

I wish it were that easy! (I lived with a guy once and he used to leave his Snickers in the fridge all week, taking a little piece off it every day or two. That just drove me mad: eat the fecking thing and stop dancing around it!).

ScumLord

The diet version are mank anyway. I don't drink soft drinks that often, maybe once or twice a week.

andekwarhola

The_Valeyard wrote: »

That you should really be drinking coke cola

Actually really like Max even though I know it's Diet Pepsi for men that are in denial of diet drink consumption.

Honestly can't bear the taste of full sugar soft drinks.

me_irl

Once a day

Deleted User wrote: »

I'd love to be able to retrain my tastebuds to find water - even sparkling water - as tasty as Coke Zero! Grrr.

Do you believe diet drinks are worse for your health than full sugar drinks?

Sparkling water with some robinsons (not sugar free!). Lovely.

But as someone else said "excess in moderation".

I'd only drink the full sugar coke as a treat.

InTheTrees

InTheTrees wrote: »

I can't stand that stuff.
I can taste that fake sugar taste for days afterwards.

I genuinely can't stand full sugar Coke. It always makes me thirsty and bloated - but especially thirsty.

Jimoslimos

Once a day

Hate diet drinks, would rather drink plain tap water instead.

me_irl

me_irl wrote: »

Sparkling water with some robinsons (not sugar free!). Lovely.

Aha. I once gave up Coke Zero and the Robinson's NAS with sparking water was the alternative. Drank litres of it. I went through a strange period of sparkling water with a squeeze of fresh lemon as my standard cold drink and wild berry herbal tea for warm drinks. It was a nice, energetic/caffeine-free period... but then I fell off the wagon.

diomed

Pepsi Max is your only man.
Poll needs "once a week".

Cervantes2

What about Coke Zero?

freshpopcorn

Once a day

I often gave diet fizzy drinks ago and I found they just made me thirsty!

TJJP

It's ok. If you cycle to work on one of those Dublin Bikes you'll be grand.



https://www.rte.ie/news/health/2017/0420/868916-cycling-benefits/

riffmongous

Eugh, this is a disaster for me. Going to have to go back to soda water and lemon juice

Wibbs

Once a day

Hmmm. I'm a little dubious about such reports until you can get to read the data. That said the link may not be the diet drinks themselves, but reflective of a more complex interaction with lifestyles. My maybe out there theory is the rise of dementias is linked with the rise of insulin dysfunctions(from undiagnosed to full blown) in more and more people. That such conditions are a kind of "type 2 diabetes" presenting as dementia. I'd bet that if someone was to chart the rise of dementia over a graph of the rise of type 2 diabetes there would be a strong enough correlation over the last 40 years.

Interestingly drinking diet drinks also causes an apparent rise in type 2 diabetes. I would again suspect that those who drink such beverages have lifestyles more likely to promote insulin dysfunctions. IE eating too many refined carbs, too few healthy fats and proteins, not getting enough vitamin D, "wrong" ratio of Omega fatty acids, higher levels of stress(increased cortisol production), sedentary lifestyles and so forth.

Cee-Jay-Cee

Once a day

It's not just Diet Coke or Pepsi that this effects. Cordials with no added sugar are as bad and contain aspartin (dunno if that's the correct spelling) which is the artificial sweetener that apparently causes the problems.

Tests have shown that rats won't eat or touch aspartin yet the drinks companies are adding it to drinks for human consumption.

I hate diet drinks and never drink them, if I buy Coke (which is rare) I buy full sugar regular stuff.

PARlance

I can't remember the last time I had a diet drink.

me_irl

Once a day

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

It's not just Diet Coke or Pepsi that this effects. Cordials with no added sugar are as bad and contain aspartin (dunno if that's the correct spelling) which is the artificial sweetener that apparently causes the problems.

Tests have shown that rats won't eat or touch aspartin yet the drinks companies are adding it to drinks for human consumption.

I hate diet drinks and never drink them, if I buy Coke (which is rare) I buy full sugar regular stuff.

Aspartame.

https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/aspartame.html

me_irl

me_irl wrote: »

Aspartame.

https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/aspartame.html

Note how that source does not say any of those studies which claim aspartame causes cancer are actually representative of human consumption.

And none of the larger, higher powered human studies showed an increase risk of cancer with aspartame consumption.

If you give an animal or human huge doses of any chemical (including fairly bog standard ones like water and salt) you can make them sick pretty easily.

Outlaw Pete

Anybody waiting for the science to confirm that drinking this muck is bad for your health, before they stop drinking it, deserves to.. eh... you know, what the fcuk is this thread about?

Seriously though, of course that crap is poison.

The_Valeyard

Cervantes2 wrote: »

What about Coke Zero?

Gives you super aids.

ceadaoin.

Once a day

All diet food is a huge scam. Its filled with chemicals and sugar/sweeteners to give it some semblance of a normal taste and still tastes horrible.

Everything in moderation is my motto and never sugar free or diet versions

soups05

the problem with a study like this is context. for instance, if this study was conducted on people of average weight, health etc then it is worrying. On the other hand if it was conducted on a bunch of obese americans then its hard to believe they can narrow it down to just the diet drinks. what about the supersized portion of mc donalds they had for breakfast, lunch, diner, tea, supper, and the couple of snacks in between.
every study is the same. there is a study some where that says crossing the road increases your chance of being hit by a car by 50 billion % but we all do it on a daily basis anyway. guess we are all just sooo brave

moral of the story, we are all gonna die, have fun while you can. i would rather go out next year having fun than live another 20 afraid to eat or drink what ever the latest panic is about.

Academic

Once a day

What alarms me is that we've known for quite some time that diet soda substantially increases the likelihood of developing type-2 diabetes, and still people drink the stuff.

Academic

Once a day

soups05 wrote: »

the problem with a study like this is context. for instance, if this study was conducted on people of average weight, health etc then it is worrying. On the other hand if it was conducted on a bunch of obese americans then its hard to believe they can narrow it down to just the diet drinks. what about the supersized portion of mc donalds they had for breakfast, lunch, diner, tea, supper, and the couple of snacks in between.
every study is the same. there is a study some where that says crossing the road increases your chance of being hit by a car by 50 billion % but we all do it on a daily basis anyway. guess we are all just sooo brave

moral of the story, we are all gonna die, have fun while you can. i would rather go out next year having fun than live another 20 afraid to eat or drink what ever the latest panic is about.

AHA's Stroke is a very well-regarded journal. There's no reason to suspect that the study wasn't properly controlled.

Academic

Once a day

You can read the study here (click on "Download pdf")

http://stroke.ahajournals.org/content/early/2017/04/20/STROKEAHA.116.016027

Note, importantly: "Sugar-sweetened beverages were not associated with stroke or dementia"

Your Face

Oh well, back to hard liquor and steroids.

end of the road

i have always been of the belief that diet anything is as far from diet as it gets.
there is always a catch with these things. there really is no healthier version of unhealthy foods or drinks.

MyPeopleDrankTheSoup

i drink from 4 to 6 litres of Coke Zero a day. i'm not joking.

i often do wonder of the longterm affects. obviously it can't be healthy drinking that much but then people still smoke so fcuk it

InTheTrees

Once a day

georgiecasey wrote: »

i drink from 4 to 6 litres of Coke Zero a day. i'm not joking.

i often do wonder of the longterm affects.

:eek:

Well it looks like you dont have to wonder about the long term effects any more.

Stroke and early dementia.

Something to consider.

oneilla

end of the road wrote: »

i have always been of the belief that diet anything is as far from diet as it gets.
there is always a catch with these things. there really is no healthier version of unhealthy foods or drinks.

Bingo! A bit like diet cigarettes

In order to comply with a 2006 court ruling in United States v. Philip Morris USA, Inc., et al.,[8] Philip Morris (and all other cigarette companies) is now prevented from using words such as "Lights", "Ultra-Lights", "Medium", "Mild", or any similar designation that yields a false impression that they are safer than regular full flavor cigarettes. Thus Marlboro and other cigarette companies must use only color-coding instead; for example Marlboro Lights are now called Marlboro Gold Pack.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlboro_(cigarette)

Academic

Once a day

georgiecasey wrote: »

i drink from 4 to 6 litres of Coke Zero a day. i'm not joking.

i often do wonder of the longterm affects. obviously it can't be healthy drinking that much but then people still smoke so fcuk it

So your position is:


(1) Other people smoke


therefore


(2) I want to get my feet amputated and become demented.


Hey, if it works for you … :rolleyes:

Junkyard Tom

Once a day

ceadaoin. wrote: »

All diet food is a huge scam. Its filled with chemicals and sugar/sweeteners to give it some semblance of a normal taste and still tastes horrible.

Yeah, they take all the goodness out of milk, replace it with flavouring and colours, described it as 'skimmed milk' and raise the price because you're concerned about your health. The triumph of marketing over reason.

suicide_circus

Life gives me stroke and dementia

Dirty Dingus McGee

Once a day

I never drink diet drinks (apart from a few 7up zero's because there was no other option), what the point of drinking a supposed healthy version of something that isn't good for you in the first place.

I wouldn't be too worried about this research, everything seems to give people either dementia or cancer these days and in a few weeks time there will probably be another piece of research saying coke zero reduces the risk of dementia.

timthumbni

Deleted User wrote: »

For Coke Zero addicts like myself, this is not good. As I don't smoke, or take alcohol or other drugs, Coke Zero is all my dietary vices in one. While it's only 3-5% of the people surveyed who developed a stroke or dementia, the researchers make it very clear that there are so many unknowns about artificial sweeteners and diet drinks that it would be foolish to think the consequences are limited to only 5%. The scientific evidence against artificial sweeteners seems to be growing all the time:

Diet drinks linked to risk of stroke and dementia






I'd love to be able to retrain my tastebuds to find water - even sparkling water - as tasty as Coke Zero! Grrr.

Do you believe diet drinks are worse for your health than full sugar drinks?

It's a good thing that dementia has only been around for the last 20 years or so... just like diet drinks.... now I'm not saying the 2 things are connected but....

danmanw8

Deleted User wrote: »

For Coke Zero addicts like myself, this is not good. As I don't smoke, or take alcohol or other drugs, Coke Zero is all my dietary vices in one. While it's only 3-5% of the people surveyed who developed a stroke or dementia, the researchers make it very clear that there are so many unknowns about artificial sweeteners and diet drinks that it would be foolish to think the consequences are limited to only 5%. The scientific evidence against artificial sweeteners seems to be growing all the time:

Diet drinks linked to risk of stroke and dementia


I'd love to be able to retrain my tastebuds to find water - even sparkling water - as tasty as Coke Zero! Grrr.

Do you believe diet drinks are worse for your health than full sugar drinks?

According to this dementia article, alcohol, smoking and diet are the main contributors to dementia. You say you don't smoke or drink. What's your diet like otherwise? If you're otherwise healthy, maybe it's ok, surely diet drinks don't cause these things all by themselves.

Maybe add a concentrate to flavoured water as an alternative

TerrorFirmer

Up to 3 times a day

I drink Pepsi Max and Diet Coke because I can't stand the syrupy, sugary taste of the normal versions. I hate how people act like those who consume diet drinks are somehow in some sort of denial.

TerrorFirmer

Up to 3 times a day

There are also some diet drinks use Sucralose rather than Aspartame sweetener, if you're that paranoid.

RWCNT

I got a free can of the new Coke Zero of some promo people there on my lunchbreak. Actually tastes like the real thing, lovely stuff.

xzanti

Once a day

I stopped drinking all fizzy drinks about 5 years ago, never looked back.

If it's Christmas or a party I might have a full fat Fanta or 7UP but I wouldn't touch the 'no sugar' ones. I see 'diet', I see chemical sh1tstorm.

Irish Guitarist

I find ZX diet cola from Aldi tastier than any diet Coke or Pepsi. If I'm in Aldi I get a couple of bottles, if not I buy Pepsi Max. If I'm in a shop that only has Coke I buy normal Coke because Diet Coke tastes like Alka Seltzer. I drink at least a two litre bottle of some kind of cola most days. Sometimes I might drink two bottles.

mad muffin

We drink wadi at home and very day…

dark crystal

Up to 3 times a day

I'd drink a Diet Coke or Coke Zero every day. Dementia and strokes be damned - you'll have to pry them from my cold, dead hands.

I take all these studies with a pinch of salt; if we paid attention to all of them, we'd be living on sterile macrobiotic diet and that's no life at all. It's all about balance.