Does Diet Soda Wreck Your Health?

Studies have hinted that diet-soda lovers could face higher risks of diabetes and heart disease, but new findings suggest that overall diet may be what matters most in the end. Several studies have found that people who regularly down diet soda are more likely than people who don't to have certain risk factors for those chronic diseases — like high blood pressure and high blood sugar. And one recent study became the first to link the beverages to the risk of actual heart attacks and strokes. Still, researchers have not been able to say whether it's the sugar-free drinks, themselves, that deserve the blame. Many factors separate diet- and regular-beverage drinkers — and, for that matter, people who stick with water. Overall diet is one. So this latest study tried to account for people's general diet patterns, said lead researcher Kiyah J. Duffey, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She and her colleagues used data on more than 4,000 Americans taking part in a long-term study of heart health. They were all between the ages of 18 and 30 when the study began in the mid-1980s. Over the next 20 years, 827 study participants developed metabolic syndrome — a cluster of risk factors for heart problems and diabetes including extra weight around the waist, unhealthy cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, and elevated blood sugar.