Study: Diet soda can increase risk of dementia and stroke

Enthusiasm about the health benefits of diet soda have started to go flat. Artificially sweetened drinks, such as diet sodas, were tied to a higher risk of stroke and dementia in a study, which published in the American Heart Association's journal Stroke on Thursday.

According to the study, people who consume a daily diet soda face three times the risk over someone who drinks less than one per week.

However, the study does have some critics because researchers were unable to determine an actual cause-and-effect relationship between sipping artificially sweetened drinks and an increased risk for stroke and dementia. Therefore, some experts caution that the findings should be interpreted carefully.

According to the American Beverage Association, a leading trade group: Low-calorie sweeteners have been proven safe and there is nothing in this research that counters this well-established fact.

More research is needed to understand exactly why diet soda may be harmful, but water is the one drink all health experts still agree is best.

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