Researchers studied data from more than 81,000 post-menopausal women enrolled in the large population-based Women’s Health Initiative. After an average followup of nearly 12 years, the scientists found that women who drank two or more artificially sweetened drinks a day had a 23% higher risk of having any type of stroke, and a 31% increased risk of having a stroke due to clotting in brain blood vessels, compared to women who reporting drinking fewer than one beverage a week (or none at all). While the results do not suggest that diet drinks directly cause strokes, the association raises alarms about how artificial sweeteners might be affecting the body. Drinking Diet Coke every day also increases risk of dying young, experts have warned. Dr. Yasmin Mossavar-Rahmani, lead author of the study at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York, said: “Many well-meaning people, especially those who are overweight or obese, drink low-calorie sweetened drinks to cut calories in their diet „ and „high consumption is associated with a higher risk of stroke and heart disease.”
Drinking water to cut calories is better, researchers suggested.
