Diet soda worse for diabetes than regular soda

Sugar-sweetened sodas seem like the worst thing you could give a diabetic.

But new research suggests that they might do less harm than diet sodas--beverages that are sweetened with artificial ingredients.

French women talk dietary habits

A long-term French study analyzed more than 66,000 middle-aged or older women who were asked about their dietary habits and monitored for 14 years. Researchers looked at the incidence of diabetes among women who drank either sweetened or diet soda, as well as women who drank just unsweetened fruit juice.

The women who drank diet soda had a 15 percent higher risk of diabetes than those who drank regular soda, while women in both soda groups had an overall increased diabetes risk of one-third, compared to the juice drinkers.

The juice drinkers saw no increase in diabetes.

Limitations

The study authors note that the diet soda drinkers tended to drink more of it overall, about 3 glasses compared to 2 from regular soda drinkers, and that the study has its limitations.

"Information on beverage consumption was not updated during the follow-up, and dietary habits may have changed over time," wrote researchers Francoise Clavel-Chapelon and Guy Fagherazzi.

The authors note that they can't rule out other diabetes-contributing factors than the artificially sweetened sodas.

More information on the study can be found in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Source: New York Daily News