news.com.au – If you’re the type of person to crack open a diet soft drink at 3pm when you’re looking for a pick-me-up without the calories, a new study says that this daily habit might be doing more harm than you think.
New Aussie research has found that knocking back just one artificially sweetened soft drink a day, like Diet Coke, Pepsi Max or Zero Sugar Solo, may increase your risk of developing type 2 diabetes by a staggering 38 per cent.
Surprisingly, that’s an even higher risk than those opting for classic full-sugar options, which were linked to a 23 per cent rise.
Professor Barbora de Courten, senior author on the study, told news.com.au that the findings signal a need to rethink current public health strategies.
“It might be time to broaden the policy discussion not just about taxing sugar, but about reducing population-level intake of all harmful beverages, regardless of whether they’re sweetened with sugar or synthetic alternatives,” said Professor de Courten, who is also a specialist physician at the Department of Diabetes & Vascular Medicine.
The longitudinal study, conducted by a team from Monash University, RMIT University and the Cancer Council Victoria, followed more than 36,000 Australian adults over nearly 14 years.
“Drinking one or more of these beverages each day – whether sweetened with sugar or artificial substitutes – was linked to a significantly higher chance of developing type 2 diabetes,” said Mr Hussen Kabthymer, who was involved in the study.
Professor de Courten said the findings challenge the common belief that artificially sweetened drinks are a better option.
“Artificial sweeteners often recommended to people at risk of diabetes as a healthier alternative, but our results suggest they may pose their own health risks,” she said …
