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A new study has found a link between drinking diet soda or diet fruit drinks and an increased risk of depression.
People who regularly drank four or more cans of any type of soda a day were 30 percent more likely to have received a diagnosis of depression than people who did not drink soda. The risk of depression was especially high for people who drank diet soda — a 31 percent increased risk compared to a 22 percent increased risk for those who drank regular soda, the researchers said.
Those who drank four or more cans of diet fruit drinks were 51 percent more likely to be diagnosed with depression compared to those who did not drink diet fruit drinks.
By contrast, people who drank four or more cups of coffee a day were 10 percent less likely to have been diagnosed with depression compared to non-coffee drinkers.
So is this really a problem with diet drinks, or is it actually a problem with artificial sweeteners?
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
How much more evidence do people need to stop their insane Diet Coke habits?!?!? It drives me crazy!!! "Health-conscious" eaters and exercisers downing Diet Cokes all day at work. STOP IT ALREADY!!!
I was at a meeting with colleagues at CDC in Atlanta, and one of them spent the entire day sipping from a 2-litre bottle of Diet Mountain Dew!! I was floored. Went to a conference which he attended later, and he clutched the 2 liter bottle on his lap all day. WHAA!?!? That habit is going to kill him!!!! AARGH!!
Interestingly diet sodas were the first thing I identified that were giving me intestinal problems, quite a number of years ago. Whenever I would drink diet Coke I would always get bloated and have gas pains but I thought the problem was the carbonation. Discontinued diet sodas over 10 years ago, yet I continued to use Splenda or Stevia until my most recent LC flare when the lightbulb went off and I stopped ALL sweeteners except for a bit of honey or maple syrup once in a blue moon. I chewed sugar free gum all day long as well, which also contains artificial sweeteners, not to mention gluten.
Leslie
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Diagnosed with Lymphocytic Colitis on December 5, 2012
True friendship is like sound health ... the value is seldom appreciated until it is lost ~ Charles Caleb Colton
I never could handle carbonation and was the only one of four kids who, like my Dad would say no thank you to soda. In Michigan we love our Vernors ginger ale and so, I did have that when I had a stomach disorder (which in retrospect was a lot) as a child, my mother made me drink Vernor's NON diet ginger ale after she had stirred all of the fizz out for me.
I always felt like I was being pretty judgmental about people and their sodas, and I still think that I am, but only in my own little mind do I have these thoughts of "What is wrong with you that you would drink that stuff?"
Artificial sweeteners were always something that my family eschewed and I wonder now how much worse off I would be had I gotten hooked on them. I feel very fortunate to think that growing up I had garden fresh produce grown by my father and he kept that up so that his grandchildren also got the benefit. I worry about the kinds of food my granddaughter is fed by her parents but I have to keep my mouth shut and my head down. I think that all I can do is probably relay how genetics work in our family and that it might be wise NOW to watch what goes into her little body.
Jane
Diagnosed with Lymphocytic Colitis 12/19/12
"When it gets dark enough,you can see the stars."
Charles A. Beard
My daughter and her husband have been SO supportive of all my dietary changes, they've read Wayne's book, bought me "Wheat Belly" for Christmas ;) and are adopting a mostly gluten free diet for themselves and their two little ones. My daughter commented yesterday that she feels so much better and so much more energetic after two weeks of being gluten free and (mostly) sugar free, and she's lost the rest of her "baby fat" left over from the birth of her son in April. Everything happens for a reason, right? If my being diagnosed with LC is causing my family to at least think about what they are putting in their bodies, then I'd say that is my silver lining.
My husband is another story .... keep trying to convince him that going gluten free would not only help his weight loss struggles, but would also benefit his chronic heart issues. He's not there, yet, but he did comment yesterday that over the holidays he gained the 15 pounds I've lost, and he even initiated a 3 mile urban walk yesterday afternoon, so there is hope!
Leslie
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Diagnosed with Lymphocytic Colitis on December 5, 2012
True friendship is like sound health ... the value is seldom appreciated until it is lost ~ Charles Caleb Colton
Leslie, that's great that your family is changing their way of thinking about gluten. One of my daughters is basically GF ( she cheats). My husband lives on gluten!His morning cereal, his afternoon protein bar, his bread eating...etc. He'll eat whatever I make him for dinner, but unless he gets sick, he won't change.
Good for your daughter and son-in-law. You apparently set a very inspiring example.
The next-to-last reference in my book deals with Cardiomyopathy Associated With Celiac Disease. The article is from the Mayo Clinic Proceedings, and here's a quote from the preliminary paragraph:
We describe a case of cardiomyopathy in a patient with celiac disease who had neither gastrointestinal symptoms nor manifestations of malabsorption and whose cardiac function improved substantially after treatment with a gluten-free diet.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
Thanks, Tex. My husband did read your book and he is much more understanding and supportive of the changes I need to make than he was initially, but he doesn't seem ready to make the leap to GF himself. However I did get a thumbs up for last night's quinoa pasta and as soon as I can perfect one of Dee's luscious looking pies, I might have a small chance of convincing him. Meantime I will lovingly leave your book open to the section on cardiomyopathy, smack dab in the middle of his recliner :)
Leslie
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Diagnosed with Lymphocytic Colitis on December 5, 2012
True friendship is like sound health ... the value is seldom appreciated until it is lost ~ Charles Caleb Colton
Most of us find it extremely difficult to convince close family members and other relatives to cut gluten out of their diet, so you've already done far better than most of us.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
