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Drinking One Diet Drink A Day Can Triple Risk Of Dementia And Strokes

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Yes, you heard right. Drinking One Diet Drink A Day Can Triple Risk Of Dementia And Strokes, a new study finds. Only ONE a day!

Drinking One Diet Drink A Day Can Triple Risk Of Dementia And Strokes

Drinking One Diet Drink A Day Can Triple Risk Of Dementia And Strokes

Diet soda has long been thought to be a healthier alternative to sugary soft drinks, but a new study raises some concerning questions. According to The Framingham Heart Study (conducted in partnership with Boston University), there is an association between diet soda consumption and both stroke and dementia, with people drinking diet soda daily being at a higher risk.

There’s even more evidence with a more recent study done by the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association (AHA & ASA). Turns out ALL diet drinks, including juice, may increase your risk of stroke.

My personal experience with diet soda

I have a confession to make: I am a former diet coke addict. I used to drink diet coke, coke zero, and diet drinks EVERYDAY! And also used to sweeten my coffee with Splenda, because I didn’t know about the dangers or artificial sweeteners.

I stopped consuming artificial sweeteners when I got pregnant for the first time, about 7 years ago. At one of my first prenatal visits, my doctor told me to limit the intake of diet soda.  And I thought to myself WHY? So, I looked into it and found out artificial sweeteners are really bad for our health.

After I had my son, I decided to never go back to artificial sweeteners again. It was hard at the beginning, because I was used to drinking diet coke everyday. I liked it. Actually, I LOVED it! But with time, I got used to drinking water instead. And now, I don’t crave it anymore. What happened was I was able to change the bad habit. Hurray!

Now I found another VERY POWERFUL REASON to AVOID drinking diet sodas.

It is so important to stay informed and learn about the dangers of processed foods. With information from reliable sources, you can make better choices for you and your family. This is how I changed my eating habits. Little by little (one ingredient at a time), you can switch to better and healthier ingredients.

Interested in eating clean? Please see my post, 7 Ways To Avoid Eating Processed Foods. There is nothing better than “real”, fresh homemade food. Food cooked from scratch made with nutritious ingredients.

Remember that we are what we eat. Staying away from artificial ingredients is the best for our health. Sugary drinks are bad, but diet drinks can even be more dangerous! Drinking One Diet Drink A Day Can Triple Risk Of Dementia And Strokes. Bad for our body and our brain too.

one diet drink a day is bad for your health

Study Says Drinking One Diet Drink A Day Can Triple Risk Of Dementia And Strokes

Boston University researchers found aspartame, a low-calorie sweetener, wreaks havoc on the arteries – as opposed to sugar-sweetened drinks. This means drinking diet soda is far worse for your health than drinking regular soda sweetened with sugar.

The results showed that adults who had one or more diet drinks a day were 2.9 times more likely to develop dementia and 3 times more at risk of strokes compared to those who virtually had none at all. A team of scientists from Boston University believe the artificial sweeteners including aspartame and saccharine may be affecting the blood vessels, eventually triggering strokes and dementia.

This new study involved data on 2,888 adults older than 45 and 1,484 adults older than 60 from the town of Framingham, Massachusetts. The data came from the Framingham Heart Study, a project of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and Boston University.

Researchers concluded, “After adjustments for age, sex, education (for analysis of dementia), caloric intake, diet quality, physical activity, and smoking, higher recent and higher cumulative intake of artificially sweetened soft drinks were associated with an increased risk of ischemic stroke, all-cause dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease dementia.” Interestingly, despite the diet soda dementia risk and increased risk of stroke, no association was made between the naturally sweetened sodas and stroke or dementia.

The conclusion: Stay away from sweetened drinks (natural or artificial), all together

“Although we did not find an association between stroke or dementia and the consumption of sugary drinks (referring to regular sodas sweetened with sugar), this certainly does not mean they are a healthy option. We recommend that people drink water on a regular basis instead of sugary or artificially sweetened beverages.”

We already knew drinking sugary drinks was bad. Nutrition experts believe high levels of sugar contribute not just to rising levels of obesity, but also other health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, dental cavities and cancer. The Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (CDC) have great information about the devastating consequences of eating too much sugar. It is very important to Know Your Limit for Added Sugars.

More studies about diet drinks

“Our study shows a need to put more research into this area given how often people drink artificially sweetened beverages,” said Matthew Pase, a senior research fellow in the department of neurology at Boston University School of Medicine and lead author of the new study.

This post has generated a lot of controversy. People are commenting about the study and asking for more proof. This is why I am posting a second article about other studies done on this topic. Yes, more and more studies are showing the dangers of artificial sweeteners and I think we should be listening.  Please take a look at my recent post: 5 Powerful Reasons To Quit Drinking Diet Sodas Now.

And if you need even MORE convincing, how about this June 2023 update: The World Health Organization (WHO) is declaring aspartame a possible carcinogen. Yes, many of us have known for decades that it could at least be linked to cancer. However, this declaration makes it more official.

How to choose better options

I like to sweeten my desserts with natural sugars like maple syrup and honey. In my opinion, those are the best choices if you want to enjoy a sweet treat. Instead of using chemicals, I try to use natural ingredients as much as possible. If you are interested, please take a look at my 5 Sweet Treats You Don’t Have To Feel Guilty About post.

If you don’t feel like drinking plain water always, please see my Detox Water recipes. They will also help you improve your digestive health, plus they are super tasty and so refreshing.

I also make morning smoothies sweetened with coconut water and fruits. Try to stay away from refined sugars and artificial sweeteners as much as possible. It is really the best thing you can do for your health.

What we put in our bodies will definitely affect our health and our future health. I have seen the difference, and it is truly amazing! And if you want to detox from all the toxins and chemicals in your body, I highly recommend a good detox bath.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Don’t drink this crap! I have proof that Aspartame and Diet Soda’s are bad for your health. I have lost partial vision from optic neuritis in my left eye and lesions on my brain. It masks MS. Was tested for MS but was negative. Aspartame poisoning is the reasons for my condition. I drank one Diet Coke a day, and yes I suffer now from it. PLEASE DO NOT LISTEN TO THE COMMENT ABOVE TELLING YOU TO DRINK IT!

    Reply

    • Again provide some proof.Very irritating when these articles about how bad and dangerous diet sodas are without even one ounce of proof. I’ve yet to see any credible source to give evidence of how even one person has died because of a diet soda. Plus here’s a thought if it was this bad the FDA would have it banned!!!

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      • The FDA was bribed, stop standing up to this trash conglomerate. Aspartame is a neurotoxin and yet they still put it in your diet soda anything sugar free, and gum.

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        • Isn’t it also in liquid children’s antibiotics such as amoxicillin and augmention? Everything is bad for you in today’s world! Drink on my friends. Drink on!

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      • You don’t understand about the FDA. They are not your protectors. They actually protect the vested interests of the BIG food industry and the BIG pharmaceutical companies. I am not however persuaded that diet drinks are worse than sugar drinks, especially considering our current runaway diabetes epidemic.

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      • That’s the thing though, there is no proof that they are bad for you! Try to find one article that says that!

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    • I drank water everyday for 30 years and just this week I ended up breaking my arm. Proof, water = osteoporosis. Doctor even said to me, “What were you doing when you had this fracture?” I replied, “Downing a bottle of Dasani.” Don’t drink water. It’s poison.

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      • That absurd!!!!! Water is not the cause of your broken bone just because you were drinking a bottle of Dasani at the time when it happened.Water is the fluid for our BLOOD to carry nutrients,Use by kidneys to control blood pressure. I read newborn are 75% water and at old age we are 50% water. In fact, you drinking water for 30 years would kept you aging slower!!!Broken bones has to do with bone density..and bones become less dense due to acidic diet, high meat, protein, which the kidneys will remove calcium carbonate from the bones to NEUTRALIZE the acidic amino acid. The carbonate will use to neutralize the acid and the calcium will form kidney stones.

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      • ???????????? Can’t believe people are seriously arguing with you ????????‍♀️ It’s called sarcasm people!!

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    • So sorry to hear of your health problems. We are not questioning the belief that diet drinks are bad for you, we are questioning the author’s statement that she is providing any sort of proof in her article.

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    • What you have is called clinically isolated syndrome. Optic neuritis is one of the most common initial symptoms of MS or CIS. Lesions on the brain or spinal cord are not caused by aspartame, they are caused by an autoimmune attack on the myelin sheaths of your neurons.

      You may not have fully met the diagnostic criterion for MS (based on your post, I’m guessing you didn’t have 3 lesions), but you need to find a neurologist.

      Reply

  2. i havent drank a soda in over 15 years and i dont miss it. But a big shout out to John Tesh and his radio show, thats why i stopped drinking sodas because of his shows and stories. thank you

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  3. It clearly says in the study that it increases risk for cerebrovascular disease, which mean veins. Arteries are associated with heart disease, not strokes. You’re clearly not a physician. Diet coke is poison. Aspartame is poison.

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    • sorry, but that last comment about strokes having to do with veins, not arteries, is incorrect. I am a physician, i know of what i speak. most strokes are ischemic in origin, meaning an artery is blocked, usually by either a blood clot that traveled from somewhere else in the body, or a piece of atherosclerotic plaque (a chunk of the hardening of the arteries stuff, mostly cholesterol but some other junk too) breaking off from, say, the carotid artery and lodging in a small artery. all tissue past that point of arterial blockage dies because there’s no blood flow past that point. a minor percentage of strokes are from ruptured blood vessels, again usually arteries and due to high blood pressure. brain tissue dies due to the direct pressure from the bleeding into the brain as well as the tissue past the rupture not receiving blood flow. hope this clears up any confusion about the pathophysiology of strokes (cerebrovascular accidents, cva’s). so yes, stroke falls under cardiovascular disease.

      Reply

      • Doctors don’t know everything, huh?

        Venous stroke is caused by a blood clot blocking the veins that allow blood to drain out of the brain. All other strokes are caused by abnormalities of arteries carrying blood to the brain. Venous stroke causes a back pressure effect that leads to the stroke. These strokes can be either ischemic or hemorrhagic.

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  5. You can’t really accept this one study as a definitive answer. First of all, because all of the people used lived in one areaa, there may have been environmental issues that caused the outcome. Secondly, there has to be a very long-term study to be able to say that diet soda is the cause. And the scientists “believe” that artificial sweeteners are the cause. That certainly diesnt mean much.

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  6. This seems to me as an ad for this person’s blog. Another click-bait. However, we all know artificial sweeteners are not good for us.

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  9. Just fyi, “everyday” as a single word is an adjective, as in “everyday routine”. The correct usage in your second paragraph would be “every day”.

    Also, what about stevia?

    Reply

  11. This talks about aspartame and saccharine. What about Sucralose? Sucralose is what Splenda is made from and what is in Diet Pepsi. Or Stevia?

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      • Splenda isa derivative of sugar, a food scientist told me, so you don’t have to worry.
        My grand parents were born in the late 1800s. They consumed saccharine every day of their lives in their late 80s when they died.

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  12. HI!

    Just a suggestion. You might want to be more specific when talking about artificial sweeteners. The sugar alcohol sweeteners (which are sometimes described as artificial) such as xylitol, manitol, and erythritol, and stevia (which is actually a natural sweetener) do not have the same effects as sweeteners such as aspartame.

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  13. I tend to agree. Unfortunately when people in the media get ahold of these studies, they tend to disregard what the conclusion of the researchers actually is, either through not being trained to interpret a scientific article or a need for a “splashy” title. That is why there is so much misleading information out there.

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  14. Both of my parents suffered from Dementia. My Dad had multi-infarct dementia from multiple small strokes and my mother has Alzheimer’s. As far as I remember I would say neither one of them ever had a diet soda in their life. There are so many factors that are involved in any disease, and except for studies that show a definite link between smoking and lung cancer, there aren’t any other direct links that I know of that links a specific disease with a specific activity. Everything in moderation. Heck, even too much water can kill a person.

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    • I will be 92 years old in May … I do not drink diet soda; however, I DO drink iced tea daily. I sweeten it with one “blue” and one “yellow” packet of artificial sweetener. I am in excellent health (still bowl on a league every week), still drive my car everywhere. I have been using a computer since they first came out … my first one was an IBM PC-XT with a ten meg hard drive … I had a home based secretarial service in Stamford, Connecticut at that time. I read a couple of books per week, proofread/edit new novels for an author who is in Nevada (I am in Cincinnati, Ohio). I have never smoked and do not drink alcoholic beverages. I do not believe there is a problem, at least in my case, with using artificial sweeteners and shall continue to do so.

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      • Pepsi now makes Diet Pepsi without Aspartame and with it, you have to check the label carefully. I hate the Diet Pepsi without Aspartame. The circle on the front of the can says “without Aspartame”. I had wondered why my Diet Pepsi tasted so sweet. Then I saw the “ no Aspartame” on the front label of the can.

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  19. This is a consumer pointing advert by The Cola Company.
    All their drinks are bad for your health, read facts not crap from their own company.
    It was originally used for cleaning boar bottoms..heads up for godsake

    Reply

  21. I noticed you didn’t site any of your sources but did provide plenty of links to other articles you wrote. Please site credible sources so that we can take your article serious.

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      • You “cite” the studies but you completely misinterpret them, including in your headline. The AHA-published study you reference says that people who drink Diet Coke at least once a day have an increased chance of developing those conditions. It doesn’t say that Diet Coke caused them. From the abstract:

        “Higher cumulative intake of artificially sweetened soft drinks were associated with an increased risk of ischemic stroke, all-cause dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease dementia.”

        Associated, not caused. Just because people who drink one or more diet sodas a day were ~3x more likely to develop dementia and have a stroke DOES NOT mean that Diet Coke causes those things. There’s just a correlation between the two.

        Is it surprising that people who eat (or in this case, drink) junk food on a regular basis are at an increased risk of health problems? No way. But that is a far cry from saying “Diet Coke causes Alzheimer’s disease.”

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  22. Thank you. People will freaking believe anything these days. For fucks sake, In the body, aspartame is broken down into phenylalanine, aspartic acid, and methanol. Methanol can be toxic in high amounts, but the amounts that result from the breakdown of aspartame is lower than with many “natural” foods. Sit down everyone, and crack open a nice, cold diet soda!

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  23. Totally agree – a study of only a couple of thousand is hardly a good scientific sampling any way. If all the article says is true then I and most people I know would already be dead because we’ve been drinking diet soda’s since they became popular in the 70’s. We are all between 63 and 77 and we’re doing just fine. Sure things like aspartame aren’t great in large quantities but neither is breathing most city air. so all these doomsayers banging on about Diet Cola etc…. BORING! STFU!!

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    • When I said “Totally Agree” I meant I agree with the other voices of Rationale and Reasoning, NOT the article 🙂

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  24. The Framingham study you referenced does not say what you said it said. It said they need to study it. Very misleading. I just quit diet soda, Diet Coke in fact, but your reasons are weak.

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  27. I have drink diet coke since 1989 ever day by 1 or 2 liter with no problem at all go to the DR. every 6m.I am ok still here

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      • It doesn’t help anyone who is diabetic. Also, what if a person doesn’t like the taste of stevia? Long ago, I decided to take medical advice only from medical professionals not from Facebook articles.

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  30. There’s that word again, ‘refined’ in reference to sugars. It took me a while to figure out what it meant. It means the sugars, and starches, which become sugars in your digestive process, have been milled away from the fiber Mother Nature attached them to. That fiber would have carried much of the sugar/starch right through your body without it ever entering your blood stream. Mother Nature’s smart like that. But then, she doesn’t want your money, and isn’t willing to kill you to get it.

    The tobacco companies, on the other hand, took over the food companies in the corporate raids ‘legalized’ in the 1980’s. They kill 480,000 Americans a year, year after year, so they don’t mind killing a few hundred thousand more with ‘food’, or substances sold as food. They make their living killing. And they have a government license to kill 480,000 Americans a year with tobacco.

    The leadership decision-makers at the FDA rejected aspartame for eight years. Then the CIA put Ronald Reagan in the White House and Donald Rumsfeld’s company, makers of aspartame, got a new FDA Commissioner. He approved aspartame, an inorganic aspartic acid compound your body doesn’t recognize as a food and doesn’t know how to process and eliminate as waste. It allegedly builds up in muscles and may be more toxic if heated, like it may be if exposed in hot climates during transport. Three months later the FDA Commissioner resigned and went to work for the makers of aspartame. The man who invented it warned his friends that he wore a space suit to keep it off of him while he worked with it, and told them directly, “Don’t eat it.”

    High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) may be another toxin sold as ‘food’. It was invented in the mid-1970’s by applying enzymes, from some source, to corn stalks, like the fodder they feed cattle to fatten them up for slaughter.

    Unlike beet and cane sugar, 50% Fructose and 50% Glucose, which it was revealed in 2016 the sellers had paid off leadership decision-makers in government to NOT tell YOU it causes heart disease, High Fructose Corn Syrup is 55% and 45%, and the two are not bound together like ‘refined’ beet/cane sugar.

    And I wonder how you would extract the enzymes after creating the HFCS. If the enzymes are still there in the…well, everything they put it in…the hot dog, the bun, the catsup, the cole slaw, the baked beans, the soda pop…then they are likely still active. Enzymes are catalysts. An attribute of catalysts is that they, themselves, are NOT changed as they ‘effect’ changes in other substances. If they’re still there actively changing other substances as they pass through your body the effect on your health may not be desirable.

    In the 1980’s beet and cane sugar prices went up. That was the ‘catalyst’ for sellers of High Fructose Corn Syrup to enter the food supply. HFCS was cheaper, and you could use less of it to achieve the same taste on the tongue. Invented 1970’s, entered food supply 1980’s, and in the 1990’s Americans had an obesity epidemic, 63% of Americans overweight, 34% obese, and a 60% increase in diabetes. Diabetes is not a germ. It is not a gene. If it ‘runs’ in your family it’s probably because your parents taught you how to feed yourself and they fed themselves substances that are un-Naturally concentrated carbohydrates, starches, like pizza crust, and sugars, like HFCS, beet and cane sugar.

    Soda pop ‘soft’ drinks with High Fructose Corn Syrup increased sales by 300%. Ka-ching! $$$$ Can you imagine Chevrolet increasing sales by 300%? Can you imagine measles increasing 60%? If that happened you’d want to know why. But leadership decision-makers in government didn’t wonder. They didn’t protect you from Predatory Capitalism, people who want your money and are willing to kill you to get it.

    HFCS does not make humans produce a hormone called ‘leptin’, which signals the brain that your thirst or hunger has been satisfied. Soda pop salesmen didn’t find 300% more consumers. The consumers they had wanted 300% more, and didn’t know why. It was the same soda pop they’d consumed for years wasn’t it? And it never did this to them before.

    There is no defense, but self-defense.

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  31. This was told when this kind of sweetener first come out and people laughed. This shows that if your company is big enough and you have LOTS OF MONEY you can do whatever you want and no one will care. And how sad is that then.

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  32. I started a new job with less psychical activity then before, and it was the night shift and that could get boring. I thought I had better NOT drink too much sugary produces or I would get Fat. So I started drinking Diet Pepsi every night. Within three weeks I found myself at a work station outside the plant where I worked to check on some equipment which I did EVERY NIGH,,,but that night I did NOT know why I was there when I got out of the truck…that scared me a LOT. I have had memory problems every since. I am now 72 and sometimes I can’t remember which coffee cup in mine and which is my wife’s in the morning. Not good, And I used to wire meters, Control panels and remote control equipment without a Schematic

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  34. I have to say I am a DIET COKE ADDICT and know I must give it up. I do hAve a neurological condition called Dystonia And detached retinas. MUST GIVE UP BUT SO DIFFICULT

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  35. I have been drinking diet Pepsi for about 30 years. With no problem. Aspartame has been removed from d pepsi. This. Post is old and invalid

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    • It is a great article, as long as you’re not hung up on things like well-conducted studies or peer review. The article was clearly written by someone who doesn’t understand how research is conducted or how to interpret findings. There have Brenneman thousands of studies on aspartame and none of the have shown a causal link between consumption and any of the health issues discussed in the article.

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  38. The BU study initially says that consuming >1 artificially-sweetened beverage per day leads to a 3x probability of stroke and dementia. HOWEVER, the study then says, “oops, we forgot to account for other risk factors like hypertension and diabetes.” So, the results are re-calculated to account for HT and diabetes. And what happens?

    The risk of dementia is now 1.08 times what it is for non drinkers and the risk of stroke is 1.70 times higher. Still sound high?

    Just remember (or read the article and learn) that over a 10-year period with patients who averaged 69 years of age, 1-2% of the non-drinkers developed dementia or stroke. With the adjusted risk factors, that means that those who consume a large amount of artificially-sweetened drinks top out with a 3.4% chance of either condition. Is it higher? Yes. Does a drink a day triple your risk? Absolutely not.

    An aging test population with other factors and people are pointing at their beverage selection as the reason for strokes and dementia? Come on, folks, use whatever brain cells you have left.

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  40. So grandma was slow but she was old. She made her pies with lard in the crust. Everything had either butter or Oleo in it. A typical day started with some kind of fried bread product. She kept those small bottles of coke on hand at all times. There was no skipping of meals with her. Grandma lived to 95 and was lucid up to the last day.

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  41. I’m a healthy 75 year old retired physician. I’ve consumed 3-4 diet sodas/day, sometimes less/ day sometimes more/day, for many years. I just finished working out at the gym and I’m heading home to enjoy a diet soda (diet orange soda) while I do some reading and then do some chores. Later today I’m going for a cold Spring sail on the lake.
    Please read the studies carefully and objectively.

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  42. I agree that diet coke is horrible for you. I never drink it. BUT I do believe that your broad statement that one diet coke a day can cause strokes and dementia totally unsubstantiated in your article. You refer to a study done but there are no quotes or references in your article to back up your statement.The only thing I found was a vague statement saying they ” needed to put more research into this area”. I read what I could find about the study and there is nothing to back up your statement, in my search. If you have more proof, I’d be happy to hear it. Proof is not in any way displayed in this article. While I believe that drink to be vile, this appears to me to be a biased article offering no proof of statements made . This kind of journalism is dangerous and fake.

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  43. Just not buying this at all. Scare tactics. I understand it’s not the best for you, but no way. Bologna. Not from one a day or one every once in a while. 5 or more a day, yes i would believe. Stop with this crap already. I don’t drink alcohol, smoke, or do drugs. But you bet your sweet bippy I am gonna enjoy my Diet Coke dangit!

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  44. “At one of my first prenatal visits, my doctor told me to limit the intake of diet soda. And I though to myself WHY?”

    Ok, first, you have a typo…I think you meant “thought”

    Second, if you wondered why your doctor told you to limit something why did you not ask your doctor why he/she gave you those instructions? Here is a hint, your doctor would have said it was because of the caffeine not because diet drinks were unhealthy.

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    • Thank you for your comment. I am correcting the typo. I don’t know if this happens to you but when I go to the doctor I have many questions and then I also forget to ask a lot of things. Visits are pretty short! I don’t think it’s only a caffeine issue. Diet sodas are full of chemicals and you want to avoid them during pregnancy as much as possible.

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  45. “Although we did not find an association between stroke or dementia and the consumption of sugary drinks, this certainly does not mean they are a healthy option. We recommend that people drink water on a regular basis instead of sugary or artificially sweetened beverages.” did you not read your own article? Wtf

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  46. A sugared drink is better?? Give me a break. You obviously know nothing about sugar addiction and what it can do to the body. Do some research.

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  47. Thanks for being the voice of the skepticism and reason here. It’s a shame, but people need to start taking more care of what they read on the internet when so many people make big conclusions over little evidence and others subvert for an agenda.

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    • The truth is, without a considerable understanding of statistics and how to interpret primary literature, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the average person to be able to form any concrete opinion based on one study. This opens the door for anyone with an agenda to come to potentially specious conclusions.

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  48. Am I missing something? The study concluded, “Although we did not find an association between stroke or dementia and the consumption of sugary drinks…”

    And then the writer says, “Now, you have proof that Drinking One Diet Drink A Day Can Triple Risk Of Dementia And Strokes. Only one a day!”

    What?

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  49. Your comment amazes me! I completely agree. It even states, “Although we did not find an association between stroke or dementia and the consumption of sugary drinks…” That means there is no proof! People have been trying to say diet soda is poisonous for years. I made a change from normal soda to diet and quickly lost 8 pounds just from it.

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  51. Do not drink artificial sweetners. The ‘Objective Christian’ user is a paid corporate shill who’s sponsor is making money off this stuff. It’s like cigarettes, this stuff will eventually kill you. The safety studies on aspartame during the 1970’s was faked by the corporations and the FDA approved it’s use as a food additive. I will not drink diet for this reason.

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    • I have lupus and fibromyalgia so I am extremely sensitive to chemicals. I am living proof that the ‘chemicals’in diet sodas are poison. I would crave diet soda even though it affected my mood as well.. some people have to better genetics and don’t feel the aftermath until it’s too late, I feel chemicals and can taste them immediately after they touch my lips. I would feel sometimes my head having a numbness and tingling. They found lesions on my brain and told me I have MS. It’s funny when I changed my diet (…no diet sodas) and eat healthy, the lesions disappeared and so did my fibromyalgia symptoms and lupus. The proof is in the labs. They told me I would die if I didn’t take the MS drugs.. I’m human proof and a ginnypig for everyone else. Some people don’t feel what these chemicals do and some people have a higher tolerance to ingest poison and nothing happens to them but poison is poison. The FDA said margarine was better for you than butter when it’s one or two molecules away from plastic. Fluoride a poison too and we’re told it’s ok. FDA not here to protect us and we have to do our own research. I’m a human ginnypig and from my own bodies experience then quitting these poisons my symptoms have all but disappeared. There is a correlation between the two and peoples own experiences are valid especially if they’re happening all over the place at the same time. FDA doesn’t have our best interest.

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      • First, Diana stated, “I have Fibromyalgia and Lupus.” Later, she stated that, by discontinuing soft drinks, her Fibromyalgia & Lupus symptoms “went away”. Her post was so rambling that I’m not sure if she claimed to have MS, or not. One thing I’m certain of is that she claimed to be a “ginnypig” twice!

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  52. What a bunch of hooey. This is not proof. Just because one limited study was done and it printed out does not make it true. If this were true, I would be dead. I drink 3 two liter bottles of Diet Coke a day, with no kidney, pancreas, liver, or other detrimental effects. These studies say one thing one day and something else the next. They have to publish something or they lose their jobs. This is like the saccharin will kill you findings when they were not true. If you gave a rat 1000 times the amount someone got in a day, then the rat will die. Really? No Foolin’!!! Now they find out it wasn’t so bad for you. First eggs are really bad for you, now they are good for you. First whole milk was good for you and then it was bad and then it was good again. Butter was bad for you and now it’s good. Gimme a break. These weenies haven’t a clue what effect it has on someone. They just need to publish something. Next they will be saying that food isn’t good for us and we just need to drink water…

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  53. I drank tab at 13 yr old then switch to diet coke am now 56 & a mess from these drink rotten teeth & alot if weight gain plus heart failure sometimes can’t even walk…I gave it up drink mostly water occasionally I’ll have a sweet tea no more artifical sweeteners for me.

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  54. Aspartame in Diet Coke in 1987 ended my career as an English Honors Student at the University of Florida. I could not read over 20 minutes without seeing double and blurred. After leaving school with a medical excuse, I met some people who were involved with NOMSG. What I learned from them was what was wrong with me and when I followed their advice, and ate “clean” (staying away from ALL glutamate in my food for 6 months – not an easy task) was that they were exactly right. Why glutamate? because Aspartame has the same destructive qualities as glutamate – it is toxic. Someday the scientist will come clean about this poison but it won’t be in our life time. There are so many reasons $$$$ that they refuse to admit the damage it is doing to our health — and it’s a lot more than blood vessels.

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    • Also, in the studies used by the industry scientists, Asparatame was used as the “control” for gluamate..What a joke!

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  55. BAD SCIENCE and money affects many of the “studies” where aspartame is the subject. Read “In Bad Taste” and “Excitotoxins, the Taste that Kills”…for some “good scientific studies that have been rejected while the health of Americans declines.

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  56. Sorry, but I’m a bit confused. You’re article was referencing how bad diet coke was for us, but this paragraph, right within your own blog says otherwise? Where’s your data?

    “Although we did not find an association between stroke or dementia and the consumption of sugary drinks, this certainly does not mean they are a healthy option. We recommend that people drink water on a regular basis instead of sugary or artificially sweetened beverages.”

    Regards,
    Linda

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  57. 16 years ago I was diagnosed with prostate cancer and had surgery. Since that time I have consumed diet drinks nearly every day. My cancer has never returned. Therefore I believe diet drinks cure cancer.

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  59. I drink maybe 1 diet coke a week, Not every week, Then water, lemonade, juices wine, So maybe i will be ok??

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  60. Does the study differentiate between healthy diet-soda drinkers and diabetic soda-drinkers? It is known that diabetes is a huge risk factor for dementia. To have a pool including all the variations is to have a bad dataset. Like putting snails in with hares, saying they’re comparable for the purpose of a study, to see who crosses a finish line first.

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  62. They said, that Although we did not find an association between stroke or dementia and the consumption of sugary drink” That is a fact! We recommend that people drink water on a regular basis instead of sugary or artificially sweetened beverages.” This is an opinion. This is not proof.

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  64. It’s a shame that chemists cannot come up with a drink that is not sweet. I have Ulcerative colitis. I cannot handle sweet drinks, especially fruit juices, except grapefruit juice. After a while that too causes acidic reactions. Why too is every yougurt sweet. Besides the plain ones, that aren’t good. You can’t buy the quick ones without having to put extras in,and that’s not convenient. Cream cheese flavors too, besides veggie and sometimes you can find a smoked salmon, not usually.more focus should be put producing a variety of flavors to please all consumers. As to drinks, surely someone can come up with a solution to produce a diet, caffein-free diet soda that tastes like coKe!! Hey, if we can find alternatives that are healthy for each category of drinks and foods, they can come up with something besides water,WHICH I DO DRINK, BUT NEED ALTERNATIVES, NOT UNSWEETENED TEA OR COFFEE, BOTH I ENJOY SWEETENED, A BIT WITH ASPARTAME!!! FRUIT IN MY WATER,… NO WAY JOSE????. PLEASE SEND THIS MSG TO COCA-COLA, PHILADELPHIA CREAM CHEESE MANUFACTURERS AND CHOBANI( WHO BY THE WAY USED TO HAVE SOME COOL SIRACHA FLAVOR AND SOMETHING ELSE I CANT REMEMBER ITS BEEN SO LONG.
    FROM, AN HONEST AND POLITE CONSUMER, WHO DOESN’T BELIEVE EVERYONE ENJOYS SWEET FLAVORED ITEMS, WELL SOME WITH ASPARTAME!!!!
    THANK YOU

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  65. Everyday habit espceially in drinking like coke diet…coke no sugar …or coke zero….or coke w/ sugar or any kind of softdrinks in a daily habit is not good to the body….to dont triger a reason that …this issue about the diet coke …etc…is the big can cause stroke and dementia…if you have a history or inheritance about this stroke & dementia so its better to avoid….but if you drink moderately this softdrink .w/o or w/ sugar..i think there is no problem…thats the defination there…Remember this…moderate is good but daily is not good…

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  66. The researcher says “Our study shows a need to put more research into this area given how often people drink artificially sweetened beverages.”

    But then you say, “Now, you have proof that Drinking One Diet Drink A Day Can Triple Risk Of Dementia And Strokes.”

    Proof? Even though the researcher says there’s a need for more research?

    Why would there be a need for more research — if this study PROVES something?

    Be careful in slinging around this “proof” word. A single study alone never PROVES anything.

    It may provide evidence of something. And when multiple studies show the same result, that comes pretty close to proof.

    But to say that ONE study PROVES something — especially when the researcher himself says that more research is needed — is hasty and irresponsible.

    It shows a misunderstanding of how scientific research works and what a study’s results mean.

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  68. I think maybe you should stick to writing about topics that you can back up with solid facts, instead of making sensational claims based on ONE study that you didn’t quite interpret correctly.

    If you don’t want to drink diet sodas or use artificial sweeteners, then don’t but before you tell other people what to do, get some credentials behind your name.

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    • Has all human common sense gone down the drain? God did not create these bodies of ours to consume artificial substances, of any kind, and expect to remain healthy for a lengthy period of time. At some point, the body will break down. Yes, medications will “mask” symptoms of an illness for a while, however, they never heal. In today’s world, the rate at which our bodies retain and build up toxins is alarming. The Almighty created things for us to eat which He calls “food”. Many things we put in our mouths, society calls “food”, but is not. And then we wonder why we are the most sickly nation, per capita, on earth.

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  69. I am no doctor, yet I am very capable of reading and understanding studies, and the Boston study states very clearly ““Although we did not find an association between stroke or dementia and the consumption of sugary drinks, this certainly does not mean they are a healthy option. We recommend that people drink water on a regular basis instead of sugary or artificially sweetened beverages.” More study is needed and therefore more proof is needed, this Boston study is inconclusive and therefore is not proof of artificial sweeteners cause brain damage, stroke, or other issues.

    I will just leave this here from the article itself.

    “Our study shows a need to put more research into this area given how often people drink artificially sweetened beverages,” said Matthew Pase, a senior research fellow in the department of neurology at Boston University School of Medicine and lead author of the new study.”

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  70. Definition of the scientific method – a method of procedure that has characterized natural science since the 17th century, consisting in systematic observation, measurement, and experiment, and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses. Observation itself is not science. There must be a mechanism confirmEd. Has this study been peer-reviewed? One survey does not define a fact. It’s the problem with the original anti-vacc premise.

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  71. We know sugar is addictive and things that are addictive have a tendency to be over used. I can’t stand the taste of artificial sweeteners and drink almost solely water. Do I trust studies like this… not really. Data can be manipulated …. but as a general rule it’s best to avoid artificial anything and addictive substances. Try the Whole 30 diet … it’s nearly impossible to stay on and that’s not the point of the diet, it’s meant to be for 30 days. You remove all substances that cause inflammation in your gut… after about a week you feel 10-15 years younger. I wish I had the will power to stay on it. No alcohol. No legumes. No Dairy. No wheat. No processed food. No added sugar. (Looking at labels they add sugar to EVERYTHING… even salt) Basically, you can eat meat, veggies, fruit and nuts. I lost 15lbs and felt amazing… after the first week. It’s worth a try it will change your opinion about foods/drinks.

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  72. Misleading title is misleading:
    “Our study shows a need to put more research into this area given how often people drink artificially sweetened beverages,” …
    “Although we did not find an association between stroke or dementia and the consumption of sugary drinks, this certainly does not mean they are a healthy option. We recommend that people drink water on a regular basis instead of sugary or artificially sweetened beverages.”

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  73. Several years back the American Journal of Medicine published an article stating just one diet drink per day increases your risk of developing metabolic syndrome by 50% That is a pre-cursor to diabetes. So your article only underscores the health risk people take to “enjoy” the chemical cocktail called “diet soda”

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  75. I went on a bit of a health kick a few years ago and gave up sugar, caffeine and alcohol for a couple of months. The withdrawal was awful! But with how much better I felt afterwards I now still don’t drink caffeine and sugared drinks. I have a bit of alcohol, but feel so much better. Like you I’ve now got kids and it changes your perspective on how you treat your body when you’re looking out for their well being all the time!

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  76. Not true at all. I have drank diet sodas for years and years without any issues at all. If you want to stop, that is your choice, but stop telling people something is bad for them because you don’t like it, just to write a blog.

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  78. Thanks for this slice of additional information.
    I have somewhat cut back but have never seen a bonus in stopping diet soda completely.
    I’ve had various testing done and heart and such, all in prime condition.

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  81. The research cited does NOT back up the conclusions stated in this article. It’s sad these statements are posted claiming proof. Not so.

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  82. Dear Mom Blogger, I just read your “I am not a Nutritionist, not a Physician, etc
    I am a Retired Nurse and I wouldn’t take it upon myself to publish this type of article.
    Just because you think something is bad or good why would you publish this as if your were a nutrionust or Physician.
    Please restrain you non-medical opinion.

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    • Thank you for your comment. I am just sharing a study not my own personal research. And I am also telling my story and personal experience with diet sodas. I think everyone can research and comment without being a doctor.

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      • It’s all well and good to have a personal issue with diet soda and to avoid it. But your uncritical posting of the article is, frankly, silly.
        You “can triple your risk”. What does that mean? If I have a 1:1000 chance of getting any disease and my risk triples, then I have a 3:1000 chance. The odds are still definitely in my favor.

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  83. Hold on now, this article has me so upset!! I’ve just got to sit down and drink me a 6 pack of diet coke!!! Whew! I feel so much better now!! Now stop trying to raise the tax on my fav. soda!!

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  85. I was just wondering people have been drinking diet coke for year is crystal light drinks is good for you

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  86. I am 82 years old, and have drank diet drinks for 60+ years. I am now in the usual 25 year period where death occurs (70-95) anyway, so since I have already lived this long without Dementia, why should I believe this writer? I am more likely to die from Diabetes, of which I now suffer.

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    • I’m sorry you suffer from diabetes. I am not the author of the study, I am just sharing the study with a link and giving my opinion. I think staying away from artificial ingredients is the best for our health.

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  88. I don’t doubt that aspartame and other artificial sweeteners are not good for you. I do question if only one a day could impact stroke rates. I have cut down alot with flavored seltzer Ginger beer. Soda in the US is predominantly sweetened with corn syrup not sugar. Don’t confuse the two.The introduction of corn syrup in the 70’s(by the corn lobby) to replace cane sugar is is a cleae coralation to the Increase in obesity. If you can buy a bottle of coke a cola from Mexico made with cane sugar. It takes so much better and you drink less to feel satisfied.

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  89. This is bullcrap, I drink diet soda everyday and have for over 30 years. I have no health problems nor any bad effects from this product. I live by the old saying, “believe half of what you see none what someone’s tells you. Think about life this way, everything you consume is bad for you because of the chemicals that are put in them. I only live once so I will enjoy my diet soda and anything else I desire that’s “supposedly bad” for me.12 ounce can of diet soda usually contains about 192 milligrams of aspartame and a packet of the tabletop sweetener contains about 35mg. An adult weighing 165 pounds would have to drink more than 19 cans of diet soda a day or consume more than 107 packets to go over the recommended level.
    Aspartame – American Cancer Society

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  90. I drank a minimum of 6 Diet Coke a day for almost 30 years.I have no health issues .I only stopped drinking to get my family to leave me alone.

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  91. Where are your links for proof. This is speculation with out evidence or Sorces. Try and be professionals here or it is just fake news

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  93. You have to understand statistics to appreciate the analysis of the data. Often times it is a wee percentage difference between controls and experimental groups. A smaller study such as this one will have a harder time making their point with a handful of people who are affected. But because there are multiple factors involved, every time you make a choice X that increases your risk of Y happening,compounded with a predisposition, genetically or otherwise, to risk Y, you are inching toward that event happening which perhaps you could have avoided by some simple choices in your own favor.

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  94. I agree that not enough proper studies have been done on this subject. I also agree that much of this article is heresay…..however, in my own situation over 20 years ago…I was a heavy diet cola drinker for several years. During that time, I had daily mild headaches and later developed aching in the joints and muscles. I decided to stop drinking the diet drinks to see what would happen. The headaches and the other symptoms began to go away after several months of being “clean”, and did not return. My personal conclusion was that “maybe” the nutrisweet was part of the picture, but that the caffeine might also have played a part. I would really like to see some serious studies on humans consuming diet colas and other drinks.

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  95. I found your article well written and very informative. But you could give more details from the studies. (We aren’t dummies!) Any new medical studies and medicine for “Crohn’s Disease”. A healthy diet is difficult due to the fact that many foods cause the irritation

    Thanks,
    Jo Bonfils

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  97. I agree. This article is presented in a way that suggests a causal relationship. However, a causal relationship can only be established by an experiment. In this case that would mean that one group of people has to drink one can of an artifically sweetened drink, another group has to drink sugar sweetened drink and a third group has to drink no sweetened drinks for a particular period of time. The groups have to be randomly assigned to make sure that the groups would be same with respect to age, gender, education, lifestyle etc.
    In the Bonston study they just asked people what they drank and how much. I may be that participants who drink artifically sweetened drinks may have generally a more unhealthy lifestyle than people drinking sugar-sweetened drinks and therefore are at greater risk for stroke and dementia. We do not know that.
    What we knoe from the study is that there seems to be a relation bewteen artifically sweetened drinks and the risk for stroke and dementia. Bus as there is only a correlation and no causal relationship. Accordingly, not dirnking artifically sweetened drinks does no reduce the risk of stoke or dementia.

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  98. I have consumed several diet sodas a day for many, many years. Does the danger still exist if I stop my diet soda consumption at this point and switch to water, or has the damage already been done and can’t be reversed?

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  99. Aspertame is the most exhausting studied food additive in history, More than 90 countries have examed it,all have said it is safe, including our FDA, the AMA and many others.Do you know more than thousands of the best experts? If so, what are your qualifications.

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  100. Well, to all the people arguing that the studies are bogus, go ahead and drink that stuff if you want to! A lot of us are choosing not to feed this to ourselves and our children. I no longer need “studies” informing me about what is real food vs. what is made in a laboratory somewhere. Does aspartarme grow on trees around your house? I tell my kids to read the ingredients and if they can’t identify where it came from after the first two ingredients–don’t eat it! Likewise with beauty products. Don’t eat junk food–short and simple! If nothing else, those things are addictive (go ahead argue that point) and all that the soda companies want is your money. Go ahead, give them your money. They’ll keep you addicted and you can argue about the fine points of various “studies” until you’re sitting in a nursing home and half of your brain has turned to mush. Good luck taking that path to good health. All things in moderation! Yup.

    “Everything eventually kills you, even a healthy and “perfect” lifestyle.” I agree. However, the quality of life that we live is important too. My FIL is still alive after drinking diet soda daily for years. However, he’s in a wheel chair and can no longer talk (dementia). Sure, he has a family history of this, but maybe the diet soda helped it progress a little faster. Hopefully he enjoyed it, because he’s not seeming to enjoy much these days. I’m glad I’m not spending my days addicted to some weird chemical concoction in a can.

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  101. Who is to say the harm does not come from the combination of caffeine with other ingredients? I think switching to caffeine free diet coke. It feels better. It doesn’t feel nearly as ‘stroke priming’ and body pressuring or inflaming as ordinary diet coke. What do I know, but maybe worth a try? Actually I really think it’s an improvement.

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  102. My Cholesterol is 175 and my triglycerides are 67 and my blood pressure is 118/72 . I had a moderate/severe stroke. I drank over 3 super big gulps daily of Diet Pepsi. I truly believe the aspartame was the cause of my stroke.

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  103. I totally agree with your research on the damage that diet sodas can have on the brain. When I was drinking diet sodas daily, I noticed that I was losing my short term memory and oftentimes forgetting what I was doing at home while walking from one room to another. As soon as I stopped drinking diet sodas I not only regained my short term memory, I also quit having horrible hunger pains all day long. So, diet sodas were not only affecting my memory, but also causing me to gain weight.

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