This is one I have to show my kids...

In this house, we all love to drink soda--diet soda because we are diabetics and overweight. Water is much better for us and we know it but sometimes we just want something that has more taste to it. My two older kids are basically addicted to diet soda and so is TB. I think we could easily go through $50 of soda in a week, diet Pepsi, Coke Zero and Diet Coke. The thing is, it's probably hurting us! After reading this, I must try my hardest to have a diet soda only with a meal, say dinner.

Study: Soda, even diet, can up heart risk
BOSTON (UPI) -- Drinking one or more soft drinks a day -- even diet -- may increase the risk of developing metabolic risk factors for heart disease, says a U.S. study.

"We were struck by the fact that it didn't matter whether it was a diet or regular soda that participants consumed, the association with increased risk was present," senior author Dr. Ramachandran Vasan, of the Framingham Heart Study and Boston University School of Medicine, said in a statement.

"In those who drink one or more soft drinks daily, there was an association of an increased risk of developing the metabolic syndrome."

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of cardiovascular disease and diabetes risk factors including excess waist circumference, high blood pressure, elevated triglycerides, low levels of high-density lipoprotein "good" cholesterol and high-fasting glucose levels. Three or more of the risk factors increases a person's risk of developing diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Individuals consuming one or more soft drinks a day had a 48 percent increased prevalence of the metabolic syndrome compared to those consuming less than one soft drink daily, according to the study published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.




Copyright 2007 by United Press International