SOFT drinks with artificial sweeteners and kidney damage

As we have said for decades on aspartame, and in the past several years on Splenda (sucralose, which has already shown it calcifies the kidneys) - artificial sweeteners  have a serious health impact on the kidneys.   Time will tell about Truvia and similar erythritol based products.

SOFT drinks with artificial sweeteners could cause kidney damage, according to new research.

By Lucy Johnston

Just two colas or sodas a day were found to double the risk of a faster-than-average decline in kidney function, ­scientists said. However, this problem was not linked to drinks that had been sweetened with sugar.

The researchers in the United States looked at the effect of fizzy drinks on more than 3,000 women, comparing those who consumed artificially sweetened drinks with those whose drinks were sweetened with sugar. They took into account factors such as age, high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, and heart disease.

But the survey looked only at older white women. The scientists admitted that it was not clear whether their findings also applied to men or people of different ethnic backgrounds.

Dr Julie Lin, who co-led the survey, with a team from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, said: “While more study is needed, our research suggests that higher sodium and artificially sweetened soda intake is associated with greater rate of decline in kidney function.”

The research, presented last week at the American Society of Nephrology’s annual conference in San Diego, California, was carried out as part of a major health and lifestyle investigation in the US.

A spokesman for the Beverage Association, which represents soft drink manufacturers, said it was too soon to comment on the research as it had not yet been properly evaluated by other scientists.

However, he did point out that the two main causes of chronic kidney disease were diabetes and high blood pressure “not consumption of diet soda”.

Here in Britain, the artificial sweetener aspartame is coming under more scrutiny. The government watchdog, the Food Standards Agency, is calling for volunteers to help test claims that aspartame, used in more than 4,000 products, causes illnesses.