Time to nix the diet soda habit. Drinking diet soda every day may raise your risk of a heart attack, stroke and death.

Can’t get by without your daily fix of diet soda? You might want to rethink the habit. Research presented at the International Stroke Conference found that those who drank diet carbonated beverages every day had a 61 percent greater risk of a heart attack, stroke or other deadly cardiac event. This isn’t the first research to find a link between diet soda and health issues. A 2009 study found that diet soda was also associated with type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome — a cluster of symptoms, including obesity, belly fat, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, that increase the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Though these studies do not prove that diet soda is the cause of these conditions, it does sound a warning bell. If you have a serious soda habit, you might want to think about cutting back and drinking water, or even seltzer, instead.

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1. 
   Sean November 07, 2011 at 11:26 am

   Do you think these problems could be from the artificial sweeteners?
2. 
   Tim Crytser November 08, 2011 at 1:03 pm

   Man, I really struggle with artificial sweeteners..... Although there is no solid research that shows AS are harmful ( and the harmful one's have been taken off the market) I still don't trust them. To me it is still a crutch for the problem. The whole idea was to create a sweetener that has zero calories. But if people would just eat right and exercise they wouldn't need a zero calorie sweetener (not counting diabetics). I always try to avoid AS but they are in everything. Here is an article I posted a while back.
   http://www.racerxvt.com/article/artificial-sweeteners-are-they-safe