It’s nothing new to report that aspartame is an artificial sweetener everyone should aim to avoid. In the past, it has been proven to contribute to a list of ailments, including Diabetes, neurological concerns, weight gain, brain fog, and more.
But in a study (published in 2014) which took place over 10 years and involved 60,000 women, it was determined that women who drink two or more diet drinks a day have much higher cardiovascular disease rates and are more likely to die from the disease.
In the largest study of its kind, The University of Iowa concluded the following:
[C]ompared to women who never or only rarely consume diet drinks, those who consume two or more a day are 30 percent more likely to have a cardiovascular event [heart attack or stroke] and 50 percent more likely to die from related disease.
This is one of the largest studies on this topic, and our findings are consistent with some previous data, especially those linking diet drinks to the metabolic syndrome, says Dr. Ankur Vyas the lead investigator of the study.
The association persisted even after researchers adjusted the data to account for […]
Ref “The net-net: Aspartame is really nasty stuff, eliminate it from your diet (which is not so easy to do since it is in an astonishing number of processed foods and drinks).” The “simple” answer here is to eliminate (or at least reduce) processed foods and drinks in your family’s diet. “Simple” because almost everything is processed these days- for example,I bake my own bread, but I buy white flour in 25 bags that come from ConAgra. Who knows what’s in those bags? ConAgra ain’t tellin’.
This study’s actual results do not prove that drinking diet beverages causes cardiovascular events among any population. What it does show is that known risk factors increase the likelihood of developing cardiovascular conditions, which is not exactly groundbreaking news. The most likely explanation for the association the authors found in their research is “reverse causality,” meaning those who are overweight – and therefore at greater risk for heart disease – consume diet beverages in an effort to control their weight. In other words, it is highly probable that being overweight leads to greater diet beverage consumption, not that diet beverage consumption leads to obesity or obesity-related conditions such as heart disease.
-American Beverage Association