Have you battled with yourself to give up those sugary drinks for your health? Have you always thought that sugar free would help with this? Maybe they were better for you? Well, studies have shown quite the contrary.

Studies have shown that those sugar-free fizzy drinks could actually increase your risk for heart attack and stroke. There was a study done of 2,500 people who had diet drinks ever day and they were 61 percent more likely to have vascular problems than those who did not consume any at all.

Researcher Hannah Gardener said, “If our results are confirmed with future studies, then it would suggest that diet soda may not be the optimal substitute for sugar-sweetened beverages for protection against vascular outcomes.”

Dr Sharlin Ahmed, from The Stroke Association, said: “According to this study, drinking diet fizzy drinks on a regular basis could pose the same or even higher risk for cardiovascular disease as standard fizzy drinks, providing a word of warning to those who often opt for diet versions in order to be ‘healthy’.

Tags: diet