Dangerous drinks: Scary new findings about soda

Soda—regular or diet—can be hazardous to your health, according to a recent study. Specifically, investigators found that middle-aged adults who drink one or more soft drinks a day have a 48% increased risk of metabolic syndrome, a cluster of risk factors that raise a person’s risk of heart disease and diabetes. Researchers already knew that regular soda increased the risk of metabolic syndrome; this is the first study to implicate diet soda as well.

Doctors diagnose metabolic syndrome if you have at least three of the following heart disease risk factors:

• high blood pressure
• large waist circumference
• high triglycerides
• low levels of “good” (HDL) cholesterol
• high blood sugar levels.

The study took into account differences in study subjects’ other dietary habits as well as whether or not they exercised regularly or smoked.

Researchers were surprised that diet soda was no less risky than the regular, sugary kind. That’s because fructose in sugared soda causes weight gain and contributes to high triglycerides and lowered HDL—all of which are risk factors for metabolic syndrome and diabetes. Why didn’t diet soda drinkers have better outcomes?

It’s been suggested—but not proven—that consuming a lot of artificially sweetened drinks conditions people to crave more sweet items.

Whatever the reason, the message is clear: Too much soda does not do a body good. Water, anyone?