Massive Study Links Diet Soda To Major Heart Problems

A new study shows that women who drink two or more diet drinks a day are 30% more likely to have heart problems, including heart attack and stroke, and 50 percent more likely to die from related disease. The University of Iowa included nearly 60,000 women, making it the largest study of it’s kind.

The study looked at diet soda and diet fruit drink intake and heart health for women participating in the Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study, comparing women who never or only rarely consume diet drinks to those who consume two or more a day.

This is one of the largest studies on this topic, and our findings are consistent with some previous data, especially those linking diet drinks to the metabolic syndrome.” – Dr.Ankur Vyas, lead investigator of the study

Recommended: How To Heal Your Gut

Diet drinks were defined as a 12-ounce beverage of diet soda or a diet fruit drink.

After an average follow-up of 8.7 years, the primary outcome—defined as a composite of incident coronary heart disease, congestive heart failure, heart attack, coronary revascularization procedure, ischemic stroke, peripheral arterial disease, and cardiovascular death—occurred in 8.5 percent of the women consuming two or more diet drinks a day compared to 6.9 percent in the five-to-seven diet drinks per week group; 6.8 percent in the one-to-four drinks per week group; and 7.2 percent in the zero-to-three per month group.

The association persisted even after researchers adjusted the data to account for demographic characteristics and other cardiovascular risk factors, including body mass index, smoking, hormone therapy use, physical activity, energy intake, salt intake, diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, and sugar-sweetened beverage intake. On average, women who consumed two or more diet drinks a day were younger, more likely to be smokers, and had a higher prevalence of diabetes, high blood pressure, and higher body mass index.” – Iowa State

Related: If You Drink Soda, It’s Probably The Worst Thing You Do To Yourself (even worse than smoking!)

Why You Should Avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup & Aspartame

When chemicals added to processed foods earn a bad rep for causing disease and disability, one would hope the food manufacturers would remove them from their products or the FDA would protect the American people by banning them, but neither seems to be the case – not when big money is at stake. Instead the food manufacturers either launch dis-information campaigns claiming their additives are either healthy or benign, or they confuse and deceive the consumer by using a different name for the same additive. For example, according to The Truth in Labeling Campaign, MSG can be found in food under 50 different names.

With this history of deceit, it comes as no surprise to learn that we now have to look for high fructose corn syrup and aspartame under new names.

High Fructose Corn Syrup

Dr. Mark Hyman has spent more than ten years studying high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), reading and interviewing “most of the ‘medical and nutrition experts'”.

He states the following reasons why we should never eat HFCS and why eating it may kill you.

“Sugar in any form causes obesity and disease when consumed in pharmacologic doses.” Both are dangerous to the body in the amounts eaten by the average American.
“HFCS and cane sugar are NOT biochemically identical or processed the same way by the body.” HFCS not only spikes insulin since it goes right into the bloodstream, it also goes right to the liver triggering the production of triglycerides and cholesterol. New research finds that it is a common cause of leaky gut syndrome. “High doses of free fructose have been proven to literally punch
holes in the intestinal lining allowing nasty byproducts of toxic gut
bacteria and partially digested food proteins to enter your blood stream
and trigger the inflammation that we know is at the root of obesity,
diabetes, cancer, heart disease, dementia, and accelerated aging.”
“HFCS contains contaminants including mercury that are not regulated or measured by the FDA.” Mercury was discovered. Other contaminants were also detected but as yet are unidentified.
“Independent medical and nutrition experts DO NOT support the use of HFCS in our diet, despite the assertions of the corn industry.” The industry takes comments out of context and passes them off as supportive to their products when they are not.
“HFCS is almost always a marker of poor-quality, nutrient-poor disease-creating industrial food products or “food-like substances”.” Surely we all know by now that nearly all processed food is garbage.

Add to this impressive list the fact that most of the corn in this country is genetically modified. Do you ever want to put this in your body?

So now that the truth about high fructose corn syrup is more readily available, Chex cereal has decided to rename it – calling it fructose. Even while their packaging states that the product does not contain HFCS (which is 55% fructose), instead it contains HFCS-90, (note it is high fructose corn syrup with 90% fructose) and they are calling it fructose.

Aspartame

The makers of aspartame use the argument that orange juice is natural and good for you and all they did was take two of the amino acids from orange juice to make their product. What could possibly be wrong with that?

You can easily find arguments on either side of aspartame safety from a nutritionist with a PhD listing 92 reasons aspartame is dangerous and should be completely avoided to articles claiming test after test has proven it’s safe. It is interesting that those articles always say something about the level ingested. The fact that aspartame changes into formaldehyde in the body is enough for me. I’ve smelled it. Have you?

Again, this is big business with lots of money at stake. So now a rebranding is underway. Aspartame is now aminosweet. Consumer beware.

Though you can save yourself a lot of time and trouble deciphering labels and trying to figure our what the food industry is hiding. Eat – real – food! It’s simple. Check out the 80% Raw Food Diet. If you’re looking for an inexpensive and healthy replacement for HFCS laden beverages, check out this cranberry lemonade recipe.

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7 Horrible Food Ingredients You Should Absolutely Never Eat

(DrFrankLipman – Frank Lipman) Not long ago, a seemingly radical idea arrived at the grocery store – the mandatory nutrition information label. Designed to help consumers get a clearer picture of what exactly was in their food, the idea essentially legislated food processors into being more transparent about their ingredients. Instead however, we got a lot of confusion as Big Food found ways to put questionable substances and suspected carcinogens in plain sight, right there on the nutrition label! Buried in the small print, with abbreviations and chemical chart names only a Stephen Hawking would understand, consumers were left little more enlightened than they were before mandatory labeling. To help unravel the label gibberish, here are the 7 ingredients you should always leave behind on the supermarket shelf:

1. Aspartame

If it says Equal or NutraSweet on the box, don’t put it in your cart. It’s a chemical sweetener that’s loaded with phenylalanine, which in high doses is a neurotoxin which many scientists believe can alter brain function, cause behavioral changes in adults and even mental retardation in growing fetuses when used by mothers-to-be. If that weren’t enough, side effects can also include headaches, seizures, menstrual problems and gastro-intestinal distress.

2. BHA and BHT

These two similar chemicals are used to prevent oil-containing foods from going rancid. A seemingly admirable enough use. However, they also come with some serious concerns – they’re known carcinogens, having caused cancer in lab rats, mice, and hamsters. Avoid BHA and BHT at all costs.

3. Food Coloring

Designed to make foods more attractive, food coloring has an ugly side: caramel coloring manufacturing involves the use of industrial solvents and carcinogens. Red dye number 3 is associated with tumor development. Red dye 40 and Yellow 6 are closely associated with aggressive behaviors and impulse control problems in children. I say, stay far away.

4. Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein

Hydrolyzed vegetable protein is a chemically created, flavor-enhancing protein substance that’s similar to MSG, but whitewashed a bit with a healthier sounding name. The problem with HVP is that it contains hidden MSG, so you can still wind up sickening yourself with headaches, migraines, heart irregularities and so on. Two more members of the MSG family to avoid: autolyzed yeast extract and hydrolyzed yeast extract – they too can make sensitive types feel awful.

5. Parabens

Parabens are chemical preservatives most commonly found in cosmetics and beauty products, but oddly enough, they’re also found in many baked goods, like breads, cakes, pies, pastries, cereals and some processed meats. Designed to inhibit mold growth, there’s evidence to suggest that parabens in food may play a contributing role in hormone-related problems in women, such as breast cancer, and reduced testosterone levels in men. My advice? Steer clear.

6. Partially Hydrogenated Oil

Partially hydrogenated oil and trans-fat are essentially one in the same; And most folks don’t realize that a product can claim “0g trans fat” as long as there is less than ½ gram per serving, so if you see it on the label, don’t buy it (even if it says trans fat free). Case closed. Sure the stuff makes your food less likely to spoil, but it clogs your arteries, raises bad cholesterol and lowers the good cholesterol and who needs that?

7. Nitrites

Left unadulterated, meat will start to spoil and look pretty unappetizing quickly. Add some refrigeration and a layer of nitrites, and the shelf life, not to mention the fresh-looking red color, lengthens significantly. But what happens to the nitrates when humans ingest it? Well, not only can nitrites trigger headaches and allergic reactions, research indicates that a daily habit of nitrate-laden cured meats can increase risk of cancerous tumors. While I don’t recommend eating foods with nitrites, if it’s unavoidable, then start you meal with antioxidants Vitamin C and E to protect your body. (Note: Naturally occurring nitrites, like those in some vegetables don’t cause health woes, so feel free to eat your veggies!)

FOOD FOR THOUGHT BONUS:

While carefully reading labels can help you make somewhat better choices, here’s a more radical and much simpler approach: stop buying foods with labels on them and make the switch to whole, natural, organic or local, grower-to-table foods. You’ll get exactly what your body needs and virtually none of the dangerous additives your body is better off without.

For more ideas on how to treat your body to additive-free foods, take a look at my top 9 Superfoods.