Diet or Regular, Soft Drinks Hurt Your Heart

“Regular soft drinks or diet pops – soft drinks hurt your heart no matter what;” these are the findings of a new study conducted by US researchers as part of the Framingham Heart Study. Researchers found that soft drinks increase the risk of metabolic syndrome by a long way.

The findings were arrived at after a huge study of middle-aged US adults. The researchers found that consumption of more than one soft drink a day – diet or otherwise – could potentially increase the risk for heart attack or stroke and developing diabetes.

Researchers led by senior investigator Dr. Ramchandran Vasan studied nearly 9,000 middle-aged men and women over a period of four years. Each study participant was observed three different times over the study period to note how many 355-millilitre cans of cola or other soft drinks he/she consumed daily.

The researchers observed that even a single soft drink a day was enough to elevate the risk for metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of factors that can double a person’s risk of having a heart attack or stroke. It is related to five specific health indicators including excessive abdominal fat, high blood sugar, high triglycerides, low HDL levels, and high blood pressure.

“We found that one or more sodas per day increases your risk of new-onset metabolic syndrome by about 45%, and it did not seem to matter if it was regular or diet,” Dr. Vasan, a professor of medicine at Boston University said. “That for me is striking. And other than high blood pressure, the other four… all were associated with drinking one or more sodas per day,” he added.

There were some striking findings from the study. As compared to subjects who consumed only one can per day, those who drank one or more soft drinks had:

- 31% greater risk of going obese with BMI of above 30
- 30% higher risk of putting on belly fat
- 25% greater risk of developing high blood triglycerides or high blood sugar
- 32% increased risk of lower HDL levels

Dr. Vasan and colleagues are however not very sure about the exact reason behind soft drinks increasing the risk of metabolic syndrome. “We really don’t know,” he said. “This soda consumption may be a marker for a particular dietary pattern or lifestyle. Individuals who drink one or more sodas per day tend to be people who have greater caloric intake.”

“They tend to have more of saturated fats and trans fats in their diet, they tend to be more sedentary, they seem to have lower consumption of fibre. And we tried to adjust for all of these in our analysis… but it’s very difficult to completely adjust away lifestyle,” Dr. Vasan added about their study published in the journal Circulation.

Comparing the new study with earlier ones that did not find diet drinks to have the same effect on weight and health as naturally sweetened soft drinks, Dr. David Jenkins, Director of the Risk Factor Modification Centre at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto said, “The unusual thing that needs comment is they (the study authors) say that the diet colas are the same as the calorically sweetened colas. So I think that is the piece that they’ve put into this puzzle… I think we need a lot more scrutiny of that.”

According to Dr. Jenkins, people who eat a high-calorie are that much more likely to consume more soft drinks. “I think the disappointing thing is if you thought you were doing (yourself) a major service – which you always used to think – by taking diet drinks, this is not helping you,” he said. “Before we were saying take the diet (drink) and you’re OK. Now were saying: ‘Watch it.’”

In addition to finding the association with metabolic syndrome, the study also raises the question about the ingredients of soft drinks and whether they might encourage metabolic syndrome. Dr. Arya Sharma, Chair of Cardiovascular Obesity Research at McMaster University however feels the study does not in any way provide any information that can help researchers arrive at such a conclusion.

“One thing that they say and other people have said before is if you drink a lot of sweet things, then you are sort of conditioning yourself for that sweet taste,” Dr. Sharma said. “So people who drink diet pop may be eating other sweets, whether that comes in the form of dessert or other things, I don’t know.”

“It may be that people who are drinking diet pop – and we have this effect often with people who go on diets or when people go running or whatever – that you do a little bit of something that you think is good, and then you overcompensate by doing more of something that is bad,” he said, adding, “The idea could be because I’m drinking diet pap, I can afford to splurge on dessert.”

At the same time, Dr. Vasan declined from recommending that people stop drinking soft drinks on the basis of their study. In his opinion, their findings are associative and don’t carry a clear cause and effect base.

“The simple message is eat healthy, exercise regularly and everything should be done in moderation,” he said. “If you’re a regular soda drinker you should be aware that this study adds to the evidence that regular soda may be associated with metabolic consequences. If you’re a diet soda drinker, stay tuned for additional research to confirm or refute these findings.”

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