Heart diseases are included in the long list of severe health conditions that are associated to the consumption of soft drinks. Scientific research has shown that the added sugars contained in the soft drinks in the form of high fructose corn syrup are responsible for increased levels of both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. According to a 10-week scientific experiment, people who consume sugar-sweetened soft drinks demonstrate high levels of blood pressure. On the contrary, people who consume artificially sweetened beverages exhibit lower levels of blood pressure.

The Framingham Heart Study that was published in ‘Circulation’, the Journal of the American Heart Association, suggests that people who consume more than one 12-ounce carbonated beverage per day are 44 percent more likely to develop heart disease within a follow-up period of four years as a result of an increase in metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of symptoms that determine an increased risk for cardiovascular diseases. Symptoms may include high blood pressure, low levels of “good” cholesterol (HDL), increasing weight gain and high glucose levels. According to Framingham researchers, the presence of at least three of these symptoms put a person at a high risk of developing cardiovascular diseases.

Another study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that excessive consumption of carbonated beverages puts female populations at a higher risk for coronary heart disease. According to the study, sugar-sweetened beverage intake and the risk of developing heart disease are positively related. Having controlled the factors of smoking, unhealthy diet, low levels of physical activity and high body mass index (BMI), the study suggests that women who consume two or more carbonated drinks per day exhibit a 35 percent higher risk of developing a heart disease than those who consume less than two carbonated drinks per month (!).

The findings of above studies related the risk of heart disease to diet carbonated beverages as well. As such, many organizations questioned their findings suggesting that diet soft drinks contain artificial sweeteners and therefore, their consumption shouldn’t be related to metabolic syndrome. However, researchers theorized that people who consume diet carbonated beverages do so because they are already overweight and/or have high cholesterol and therefore, they already have an increased risk for metabolic syndrome.

To set things straight: research studies suggest that the artificial sweeteners contained in diet soft drinks may be responsible for leading to weight gaining and health problems associated to metabolic syndrome, which leads to heart diseases. However, no matter what type of carbonated beverages people consume – regular or diet – it is certain that cutting back on consumption is the key for a healthy life. Carbonated beverages are full of empty calories that the body doesn’t get compensated for. Therefore, by reducing soft drink consumption the body is protected from gaining extra weight that may trigger symptoms of metabolic syndrome and get, in general, out of balance.

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