Diet soda doesn't lead to diabetes

Good news for diet soda drinkers everywhere: your favorite sugar free and artificially sweetened carbonated beverage is not going to lead to diabetes. A new study from Harvard University sets our minds at ease.

A large group of men were followed for twenty years, their diet and exercise choices noted weekly for researchers. They found that when men drank sugary drinks it was likely that they would develop diabetes, but there was no evidence that was true for men who regularly drank artificially sweetened soda.

Yeehaw, replacing the sugary drinks with diet versions is safe and even healthy according to the article published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. “There are multiple alternatives to regular soda,” said Dr. Frank Hu, one of the researchers. “Diet soda is perhaps not the best alternative, but moderate consumption is not going to have appreciable harmful effects.”

This study indicates that any previously held belief that diet soda led to diabetes is wrong and that the factors leading to diabetes are found elsewhere. Most importantly, drinkers of diet beverages tend to be overweight and that is a leading cause for diabetes.

Also, coffee drinkers can rest easy as well. There was no link between coffee, either caf or decaf, and diabetes. Also no link with fruit juices.

Source: The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Reuters