Diet and Alzheimer’s: Diet Soda

Grade: Bad

Sugar is bad so how about artificial sweeteners?  When it comes to dementia you should dump that diet soda down the drain.

April 2017 – Stroke (a journal published by the American Heart Association) ran a prospective cohort study using data from the Framingham Heart Study.  The researchers studied nearly 3,000 participants over the age of 45 and found that those who consumed artificially sweetened beverages were at significantly increased risk of both stroke and dementia.

The two graphs below show A. Risk of all stroke types and B. Risk of all-cause dementia.  Green = zero diet sodas  /  Red = 1 to 6 per week  /  Blue = 1 or more per day

The study concludes that the risk of stroke and dementia increases in each of the 10 years (left to right in the graph) for each group (Green, Red, and Blue).

The graph clearly shows that the more diet sodas you consume and the longer you continue to drink them, the greater your risk of stroke and/or dementia.

Diet soda graph

image source Stroke a journal of the […]