2011-02-12&02-14 无糖汽水会致死？

The headlines this morning about a new study that says drinking diet soda 1 could be dangerous to your health. The study links diet soda to a 61% higher risk of heart attacks and strokes for people that drink it daily. Dr. Richard Besser is here and get a little bit of reality check because this is concerning for a lot of people. Should it be?

Well, you know, Robin 2, when I see a bad study out there, I usually say let’s not talk about it but when it captures headlines, it’s worth doing a reality check and I have to say this is one of the worst studies I’ve seen capturing headlines in a long time. It’s bad because of the science but it’s also bad because of the behavior that it can induce the fear that people have. I don’t think people should change behavior based on this study.

But this was presented at a major conference. We’re talking about the American Heart Association and the Stroke Association, so when that is associated with that, you…

That’s right. Let me tell you what they did here. They followed 2500 people over a long period of time but there were only 8% of them, a couple of hundred people who drink diet sodas 3 every day. They asked about diet soda intake 4 at the beginning of the study and then followed them for a decade and assumed that their behavior, the amount of soda they drink didn’t change. They didn’t look at how much salt they took in. They didn’t look at what other foods they ate. Those things we know are associated with stroke and heart attack. They didn’t even look at obesity 5 over time. And so they can conclude from this. That it’s all from the diet soda just makes no sense whatsoever 6. Now at a meeting, you know, national meetings are different than what’s published in a journal. A meeting is a place for scientists to talk about things, to talk about studies that are in their works. But what I’m finding over time is that there tends to be a desire to capture those headlines. So you see sensational 7 things like this you know they just go wild coming out of a meeting.

Well, it certainly did capture our attention and it really did grab headlines, so give us the bottom line when it comes to our consumption of diet, because you know so many people this morning as we’ve been saying instead of a cup of coffee they are having a diet soda.

They are. Well, you know, first off, I’m not a big soda fan. The regular soda is worse. We know it’s linked to obesity. Diet soda is better than that because it doesn’t give those calories, but if you are drinking a lot of diet soda, it’s so sweet you are gonna crave 8 that kind of sweet, develop you know a love for those sweets. You know the subtle sweetness of a carrot or tomato really won’t stand up to that really intense sweetness of a diet soda, so I think if you are gonna do it you know one a week, that’s not a big deal, but it’s not… (one a week?) Well, okay, maybe a little more than one a week, but you don’t wanna be having five or six in a day. (Well, okay.) You know, try and move towards those unsweetened beverages 9, the plain water, carbonated water, unsweetened tea. You can add some lemons, some lime, jasmin. I’d love to hear from people what their favorite unsweetened beverages are.

And is there any difference… since George is asking about this ‘cause you see if I didn’t know there was a diet ginger 10 ale, I won't try it, but if it’s a cola, uncola, if it’s a diet drink, is it all the same?

Well, what you may find a difference with some of those is whether or not they’ve got a lot of caffeine and you know the big caffeine joe that you will get from a lot of diet sodas. And you won’t get that with the diet ginger ale. So that’s a benefit there.

Ok, Rich. Thanks. I like your ideas. People should kind of weigh in and let us know they have a substitute for diet soda.

Yeah, send it to me on twitter Dr. Richard Besser.

Oh, there he goes again. He’s always looking for followers 11. Alright. Rich. Thanks.