Diet soda is a staple in Chase Morgan’s life. He has been drinking diet soda for as long as he can remember. Typically, he drinks one to two cans per day.

‘I really can’t go for a day without diet soda,’ said Morgan, a senior broadcast journalism major. ‘If I do, I’ll get a slight headache — not terrible, but I need my sodas.’

Morgan said he only drinks diet soda because he thinks they are healthier for having less sugar. But diet soda is not necessarily the best substitute for regular sugar-filled drinks, according to new research.

Research from a number of experiments presented at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2011 showed that people who drink diet soda have a higher risk of stroke, heart attack and vascular-related events than those who do not drink soda at all, according to a Feb. 9 news release on the American Heart Association’s website.

The multiethnic Northern Manhattan Study, which had 2,564 participants, showed people who drank diet soda every day had a 61 percent higher risk of heart problems than non-soda drinkers, according to the release.

The high level of sodium in diet soda is a problem, said Dennis Bullard, a resident nurse at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University’s Upstate Connect, a free health information and referral service.

‘We all have salt in our bodies,’ Bullard said. ‘In fact, our bodies are 9 percent salt, but you have to keep everything balanced. Too much sodium can cause high blood pressure and strokes.’ 

In the Manhattan study, researchers divided participants into seven groups based on how much and what kind of soda they said they drank. 

The categories were no soda, meaning less than one soda per month; moderate regular soda only; daily regular soda; moderate diet soda only; daily diet soda only; and both diet and regular soda, according to the release.

Factors such as participants’ age, race or ethnicity, sex, smoking status, alcohol consumption, exercise and daily caloric intake were among those taken into consideration in the study, according to the release. 

Scientists reported 559 vascular events during an average follow-up of 9.3 years, according to the release. Vascular events included ischemic stroke, which occurs as a result of a barrier within a blood vessel taking blood to the brain.

‘You’d think being diet it would be healthier because it has less sugar,’ said Uchenna Mbawuike, a senior biology major. ‘But whether it’s regular or diet, it’s all chemicals. To really be healthy, stop drinking soda.’ 

Bullard, the resident nurse, said if someone has a health concern, he or she should check in with a physician. He suggested keeping the salt intake to 4,000 milligrams or 4 grams of salt and cutting down on soda if sensitive to salt.

‘But I wouldn’t tell people in general to stop drinking diet soda,’ Bullard said. ‘Just be smart.’

afkrenge@syr.edu

Published on February 21, 2011 at 12:00 pm