Hello there. I'm Monica Reinagle and you are listening to the nutrition

Diva podcast. Welcome. This week we're talking about the latest study to throw shade on artificial sweeteners.

A study published last month in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that soda drinkers have a higher risk of heart disease

than those who do not drink sweetened beverages. Now the association between

sugar consumption and heart disease risk is not new.

As a person's sugar intake increases,

so does their risk of cardiovascular disease.

And this association, by the way,

is seen regardless of the age, the body weight, or the exercise

habits of the person. Even among those with otherwise healthy diets, you know, lots of fruits and vegetables, lean meat, whole grains and that sort of thing,

heart disease risk increases with added sugar intake.

The more surprising thing about this study, however, was that those who drank a lot of artificially sweetened soda had the same elevated risk as people who drank a lot of sugar sweetened soda.

The risk of heart disease was about one-third higher among those who were high consumers of either type of soda

compared to low consumers.

That means if 10 out of 100 low consumers developed heart

disease then 13 out of 100 high consumers would.

So let's talk a little bit about how sugar can hurt your health.

Those who consume more added sugars are more likely to be overweight and that certainly

contributes to heart disease risk.

But even when you're not overweight, a diet high in sugar can raise your triglyceride levels, that's

the amount of fat that is circulating in your bloodstream.

It may also lead to fatty deposits in the liver and these could be some of the mechanisms

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