Study Finds Link Between Diet Soda and Belly Fat in Older Adults

Drinking too much diet soda can be detrimental to one's health. A new study reportedly found a link between diet soda and belly fat in adults aged 65 or older.

For this study, the researchers examined 749 participants of Mexican-American and European-American descent taken from the San Antonio Longitudinal Study of Aging (SALSA). All of the individuals were aged 65 and above when the study began in the mid-1990s.

The data, which span 9.4 years, included diet soda consumption, waist circumference, height and weight. The information was collected four times throughout the study with three follow-ups.

Based from the data, the researchers found that older adults who did not drink diet soda had an average increase of 0.30 inches in waist circumference at each follow up. Older adults who drank diet soda every day, however, had an average increase of 1.20 inches. In participants who occasionally drank diet soda, their waist circumference increased by an average of 0.69 inches.

"The SALSA study shows that increasing diet soda intake was associated with escalating abdominal obesity, which may increase cardiometabolic risk in older adults," said lead author Sharon Fowler, MPH, from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. "The burden of metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease, along with healthcare costs, is great in the ever-increasing senior population."

Although the study did not find a cause-and-effect relationship, the researchers are recommending older adults to avoid drinking diet soda. Belly fat in particular can be extremely detrimental to one's health. An increase in abdominal fat can lead to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and inflammation.

"People who are already at cardiometabolic risk because they have higher BMIs are really in double or triple jeopardy," study's senior author Dr. Helen Hazuda, professor of medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio stated. "When they think they're doing something good by drinking artificially sweetened beverages, it's actually totally counterproductive."

This study adds to the growing number of studies that have found a link between diet soda and health risks.

"It's important to recognize that this observational study looked at an aging population -- those over 65 at the beginning of the study, who are already at risk of weight gain and cardiovascular disease -- and then made conclusions based on associations," the American Beverage Association said in a statement. "However, many trying to lose or control their weight look for ways to reduce calories, including with their beverage choices."

The study was published in the Journal of American Geriatrics.