Turns out, artificial sweeteners are not so sweet for our hearts. Diet beverages were once the rage as a seemingly healthier alternative to sodas and other sugary drinks. But time has shown that the wannabe sweeteners in those drinks aren’t necessarily a good replacement for sugar.
In fact, researchers in China have uncovered a connection between artificially sweetened beverages and atrial fibrillation, or A-fib. A-fib is when the heart beats irregularly, and often very fast. People with this condition often describe it as feeling like a flutter in their chest.
A-fib is the leading cause of stroke in the United States. It can also increase the risk of blood clots, heart failure, heart attack and dementia. And the number of people impacted by A-fib is on the rise.
In the recent study, scientists explored the effects of sugar-sweetened beverages, artificially sweetened beverages and pure fruit juice. The results indicated that drinking the equivalent of a medium fast food diet soda per day raised the risk of A-fib by 20%.
Those who drank a comparable amount of sugar-sweetened drinks saw a 10% increase in their risk of developing A-fib. And those who drank about 4 ounces of pure, unsweetened fruit juice reduced their risk of A-fib by 8%.
The researchers said that because individual diets can be so different, they couldn’t definitively say one beverage is riskier than another.
But ultimately, the study strongly points to a natural choice being the better one.
So, If you want to really be sweet to yourself, ditch the manmade drinks and grab a juice. Preferably unsweetened.