Newly added to the list of things that are maybe killing you: diet soda.
But back to diet soda.
Youve probably seen the headlines about a new study linking diet soda consumption with a higher risk of death.
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Which, yeah, big if true!
Heres what you should probably know about that.
So, not great.
Heres exactly what the researchers found.
Between 1992 and 2000, the researchers recruited 521,330 individuals from over 10 European countries for their study.
Next the researchers recorded whenever one of the study participants died as well as their cause of death.
Over the follow-up period, 41,693 of them died.
They also analyzed a few illnesses within those overarching categories.
But the researchers found no statistically significant link between cancer deaths and regular or diet soda consumption.
I repeat: Nothing about this study suggests that drinking any kind of soda gives you cancer.
The researchers even looked at specific cancers, likebreast cancer, and still found no statistically significant association.
Circulatory diseases killed 21.8 percent of the study participants who died.
Interestingly, though, there was an association between these illnesses and consuming artificially sweetened drinks.
(Therewashowever an association between sugar-sweetened drinks and premature death from digestive illnesses.)
Here are all the reasons you should NOT freak out about this news.
But since we dont live in a dystopian sci-fi world, researchers cant do that.
Instead they make do by observing what people are already doing in the real world.
and telling the truth.
Also, participants didnt retake these lifestyle questionnaires throughout the study, and people change.
Something else that could have changed over the years?
The amount and bang out of soda participants drank.
Researchers only asked participants about their soda habits once at the beginning of the study.
Basically: Who knows?
Whats more, the researchers left out some pretty major confounding variables that we know can affect health outcomes.
For example, Goss notes, they didnt record peoplesraceor ethnicity.
Some [racial and] ethnic groups are at a higher risk for certain diseases, Goss says.
Socioeconomic status or income level is another missing variable, Goss points out.
The point is that this key in of potential scientific cause and effect can be really hard to untangle.
Its nowhere near as simple as saying diet soda is going to kill you before your time.
Experts arent even sure exactly how diet sodawouldkill people.
One more massive question in the diet soda = death puzzle that doesnt have an answer: How?
So more research is needed to understand why this would be the case.
(Here arethe firstandsecond.)
Sure, water is always going to be the best choice, Goss says.
