A Diet Soda a day linked to high health risks

November 13, 2012

Diet Soda and Strokes See also my blog on Myth, junkscience, deception, propaganda etc

A research study was presented at a confreance which related the consumption of diet soda with the occurance of strokes. Some of the media has picked up and carried the story and made the findings sound as id there was some kind of cause and effect. A normal reader would come away from such stories with the idea that the consumption of diet sodas is a risky health behavior. What makes this study sound so convincing, is the statistice presented:

Among the 2500 individuals in the study, it was discovered that of those who drank 1 or more diet sodas per day, there was almost a 50% increase of risk of having a stroke in the 9 years of the study, compared with those who drank no soda.

Most of the media reports I found on this, there were no questions posed about whether the study was legitimate or even useful. This study provided a correlation between diet sodas and stroke risk.

At the same conferance, there was also a study presented by UCLA researchers that stated that strokes are prevalent among Oscar nominees. Should we conclude then, that notable actors are likely to have strokes? If so, is it because of their carreer choice, or maybe just being good at their jobs. Perhaps it is the nomination process for the Oscars that causes strokes. Perhaps, Oscar nominees drink too much diet soda.

I hope you detected sarcasm there, none of the possible cuases I listed of strokes among Oscar nominees seems likely, point is, we do not have enough information to make any rational conclusions from. Even if we could find commonality among Oscar nominees that might explain a higher incidence among the nomiees and the rest of us, we have not established a cause, or even a mechanism that puts them at greater risk, in fact, we have not demonstrated that it is not a statistical fluke.

Therein lies the rub with the diet soda consumers. Cause does not equal effect. Going back to the initial point of the correlation, it was claimed that stroke is more common amoung diet soda drinkers, than it is among those who drank no soda. How do we know then, that it is diet soda that may be the culprit, why not compare them with consumeres of sugar sweetened soda? Perhps it is not the sweetener's fault, perhaps it is an artifical coloring, or carbonated water? I doubt that also. It should be noted, that the category did not separate all of the different artificial sweeters. Are we to suppose, that aspartame, sacharen, sucralose etc, are all coincidenatlly causes of strokes? What do they have in common that might explain this. Perhaps, it is not artificial sweetenters that is the problem, maybe a shortage of sugar causes strokes. I am not suggesting that either, but the point is, that a study like this does not provide answers, it only raises questions.

This study was only presented as an abstract, it has not been published, nor peer reviewed.

One of the things not taken into account, was the facter of being overweight. Overweight people probably consume more diet things than normalweight or underweight people do (I am guessing, as I have no study to prove it). If that is the case, might it be that obesity is the issue, not the consumption of diet soda? Do we know what kind of food these people were eating with the diet sodas ( perhaps a bag of chips, french fries and and a double cheeseburger)?

Doing a study like this is interesting, but it proves nothing other than a correlation of diet soda consumption and stroke occurance, which might be worthy furter investigation. That is all well and good. If we however, were to conclude that diet sodas cause strokes, then we have moved into the realm of junk science.

By the way, I have noticed a tendency amoung the poor of the world to have many children. I am seeking funding for a study investigating the distribution of money as a form of birth control. If you have a line on a good source of grants, please let me know.