A new study, presented to the American College of Cardiology, has found that post-menopausal women who consume two or more soft drinks daily are 30% more likely to suffer a ‘cardiovascular event’ and 50% more likely to die from heart disease.
In Diet Drink Consumption and the Risk of Cardiovascular Events: A Report from the Women’s Health Initiative, the diet drink consumption of 60,000 female participants over three months was analysed.
After an average follow-up of nine years, the scientists found that 8.5% of women who drank two or more diet drinks a day experienced heart problems including coronary heart disease, heart attack and cardiovascular death, compared to 7.2% in those only drinking up to three diet drinks per month.
“We only found an association, so we can’t say that diet drinks cause problems,” said lead investigator Dr Ankur Vyas, who added that the women who drank at least two diet drinks a day were prone to have other risk factors including being smokers, having diabetes, high blood pressure and being overweight.
