Complicated link between diet drinks, health: study: MedlinePlus

Came across this & I know the issue is bandied about a lot.  These are some interesting findings.

Several studies have found that people who regularly down diet soda are more likely than people who don’t to have certain risk factors for those chronic diseases — like high blood pressure and high blood sugar.

And one recent study became the first to link the beverages to the risk of actual heart attacks and strokes (see Reuters Health story of February 17, 2012).

Still, researchers have not been able to say whether it’s the sugar-free drinks, themselves, that deserve the blame.

Many factors separate diet- and regular-beverage drinkers — and, for that matter, people who stick with water. Overall diet is one.

So this latest study tried to account for people’s general diet patterns, said lead researcher Kiyah J. Duffey, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. (Hit the link below for the rest of the article.)

I like this study because they don’t claim to have any hard & fast answers, they just present their findings.  What I wonder when looking at this is

1. What are the non-diet soda drinkers drinker?  Water is mentioned in the article, but when they talk about the group who didn’t typically drink diet sodas, they didn’t say what they drank instead.  Is it water?  Or do they simply favor regular sodas?  Probably water, but I think it’s a fair question.
2. Why do the diet soda drinkers drink diet soda?  I think that answer could explain some of the difference, although as is pointed out the overall diet made the biggest difference.  Still, again, I think it’s a fair question.  You can never have too much information when doing research.

Complicated link between diet drinks, health: study: MedlinePlus.