Restaurant customers who switched from sugared sodas to diet versions for health reasons may soon question the move because of a major new report on the dangers of artificially sweetened beverages.
The findings could discourage consumption of the drinks, accelerating a decline in soft drink sales and the profits they deliver to restaurants.
The research found that diet sodas raise a drinker’s risk of suffering a stroke or dementia. The report found no heightened danger of those ailments among consumers who drink sugared beverages.
The report, as summarized yesterday on the website of the medical journal Stroke, was based on the experiences of 2,888 research participants, as studied by the eight authors, all of whom were either medical doctors or holders of a Ph.D.
The doctors were affiliated with Boston University Medical Center in Massachusetts.
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