Generally speaking, when I talk to my colleagues in the CAM community, I hear a consensus that artificially sweetened beverages are an unhealthy choice. But other than persistent anecdotes of idiosyncratic reactions, evidence against diet soda has been remarkably thin.
A new report presented at the American Society of Nephrology meeting this week may change this consensus, however. The new study analyzed 3200 women from the Nurses’ Health Study, finding that the risk of significant decline in kidney function was much higher in older women drinking two or more artificially sweetened beverages daily.