According to a new study, drinking just a few daily cans of sugar free soft drinks might dramatically increase your risk of liver and heart damage.
If you’re doing yourself a favour by steering clear of sugar filled drinks and instead you’re sticking to the sugar free alternative then be warned: you might be doing more damage than it’s worth.
Researchers from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and Columbia University Medical Centre suggest that people who drink low sugar diet alternatives are 43 per cent more likely to have heart attacks, strokes and vascular disease compared to people who just drink the normal stuff.
The researchers studied the soft drink and diet soft drink consumption of 2,564 people over a 10-year period – along with their risk of stroke, heart attack and vascular death, reports the Daily Mail.
It was found that those who drank diet soft drinks everyday were 43 per cent more likely to have suffered from a ‘blood vessel event’ when compared with the normal soft drink drinkers.
‘Our results suggest a potential association between daily diet soft drink consumption and vascular outcomes,” said Dr Hannah Gardener.
‘However, the mechanisms by which soft drinks may affect vascular events are unclear.’
The researchers say they’ll have to look further into the topic before concrete conclusions could be made. But still, it would make you think twice about having a second can of diet soda.
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