Down side of diet drinks | Canarian Weekly in Tenerife

A TEAM of American health researchers believe that fizzy diet drinks could bring on depression if as many as four cans a day are consumed.

North Carolina?s National Institutes of Health, whose 10-year study involved more than 250,000 people, found that artificially-sweetened drinks were likely to increase the risk of depression by about one-third.

Researchers also discovered that drinking coffee was also linked to depression, but the risk was 10% lower.

Lead researcher Dr Honglei Chen said: ?Our research suggests that cutting out or down on sweetened diet drinks or replacing them with unsweetened coffee may help lower your depression risk naturally.?

But he agreed that more studies were needed to explore this because many other factors may be involved.

And the findings, in people living in theUS, aged between 50-80, might not apply to other populations.

The safety of sweeteners, like aspartame, has been tested extensively by scientists and is assured by regulators.

Gaynor Bussell, of the British Dietetic Association, said: ?They used to be called ?artificial sweeteners? and, unfortunately, the term ?artificial? has evoked suspicion.

?As a result, sweeteners have been widely-tested and reviewed for safety ? and the ones on the market have an excellent track record of safety.

?Sweeteners are used in a wide range of manufactured, sugar-free, reduced-sugar and low-calorie foods and drinks.

?These include aspartame, saccharine, acesulfame potassium (K), cyclamate and sucralose, but they are virtually free of calories and do not affect blood glucose levels.

?But there are regulations about how much sweetener can be used in foods and ?acceptable daily limits?.

She added: ?However, the studies on them continue, and this one has thrown up a possibly link ? not a cause and effect ? with depression.?

And she stressed that the study was a ?one-off? and did not mean that sweeteners caused depression.

?For a start, people who suffer from depression may latch on to the idea that their sweetened beverages caused it,? said Ms Bussell.

?This would add a bias to their reporting of past intake, especially as ?soda? in theUSis demonised even more than in theUK.

?Also, it may be that having ?diet? drinks is a marker for obesity or diabetes which, in themselves, can cause depression.

?Non-calorific sweeteners can play a useful role in the diets of diabetics and those trying to lose weight, and it is certainly not advocated that people should replace their diet drinks with more coffee.?

Beth Murphy, at the mental health charity Mind, said: ?We would urge anyone affected by depression to follow the advice of their GP, or other medical professionals in regards to their treatment.?

Short URL: http://www.canarianweekly.com/?p=16374

Source: http://www.canarianweekly.com/side-diet-drinks/

Jack Klugman weather channel weather forecast merry Christmas a christmas story twas the night before christmas santa