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.
This association reportedly held true even after correcting for high blood pressure and diabetes, two of the most common reasons for kidney disease in Americans. Although the beverage industry notes that hypertension and diabetes account for the majority of kidney disease cases, diagnosis of kidney problems has risen dramatically from about the time aspartame came on the market. At least some of these cases of kidney failure are not explained by the increases in diabetes and hypertension incidence.
These results are still preliminary in the sense that they have not been published in full in a peer-reviewed journal. Also, as the interviewed nutritionist notes in the linked article, the Nurses’ Health Study depends on food frequency questionnaires, an imperfect way of determining diet intake. We’ll probably need to see a few more studies like this to confirm that this relationship is a real one.
Another item not clear from the linked news report is which diet beverages these women were drinking. Since the data were gathered based on questionnaires sent out in 1984, 1986, and 1990, it seems likely that aspartame is the most frequently used item. Sucralose, common in beverages today, was not approved until nearly a decade after the last data collection. Saccharin was available during this time period, as well, but sales appear to have been less than for aspartame. This is all speculative, however, and this study likely did not collect data on specific sweetener types.
I am not a big fan of diet drinks. There has been evidence that diet drinks can impair satiety, causing people to eat more calories than they otherwise should. But if this report holds up to further scrutiny, the responsible beverages really should be banned.
This, by the way, might be the LEAST timely (pun sort of intended) health news article of the year.