Diet soda will kill you!

For a long time medical researchers long warned that most diet drinks hold significant health risk because they are sweetened (most of them) with aspartame, which was said to provoke significant insulin release, raising the risk of diabetes onset. As well, aspartame was was said to heighten cancer risks and others risks, "ranging from allergies and premature births to liver damage and cancer." But, as Britain's National Health Service reports, it isn't so.

But now:

Back to the fray: "Study links diet soda to higher risk of stroke, dementia."

Indeed, a new study shows an association between diet soda and both stroke and dementia, with people drinking diet soda daily being almost three times as likely to develop stroke and dementia as those who consumed it weekly or less.

“This included a higher risk of ischemic stroke, where blood vessels in the brain become obstructed and Alzheimer’s disease dementia, the most common form of dementia,” said Matthew Pase, a Boston University School of Medicine neurologist and the lead author of the study published in the journal Stroke.

While emphasizing that the research did not show causation, only a correlation, Pase said in a video explaining the study that diet drinks “might not be a healthy alternative.”

The study, described only as a hypothesis by its lead author was surrounded by caveats. While the risk was greater, the absolute numbers were low. “In our study,” the lead author said, ” three percent of the people had a new stroke and five percent developed dementia, so we’re still talking about a small number of people developing either stroke or dementia.”

Well, I have long restricted myself to one and only one can of diet soda per day, sweetened with saccharine, so I'm good to go, right? Not so fast.

The study “found that those who reported consuming at least one artificially sweetened drink a day, compared to less than one a week, were 2.96 times as likely to have an ischemic stroke, caused by blood vessel blockage, and 2.89 times as likely to be diagnosed with dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease,” said a summary from the AHA. ...
 
The artificial sweeteners consumed by those in the study included saccharin, acesulfame-K, and aspartame. Other sweeteners, including sucralose, neotame and stevia have been approved by the FDA since, the study said.

Okay, just water, coffee and tea I guess. I suspect, though, that this will be overplayed as much as previous warnings were.