Metabolic Syndrome, Chew (Drink) On It

February 10, 2008

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Yesterdays post Weight Training Revs Up Body Metabolism brought to mind the recent finding that drinking diet soda increases the risk of metabolic syndrome. A large number (9,500, aged 45 to 64) of people were followed for nine years. One of the findings was that the risk of getting metabolic syndrome was a whopping 34% higher in those who drank diet soda. This was a higher risk than those who ate a “nutritionally poor” diet, whose risk increased 18%. It is amazing that diet soda had a higher risk.

We hear about metabolic syndrome all the time. I would bet that many people have absolutely no idea how it is defined; they just know it is not good. These are the clinical guidelines from ATP III. Clinically you are classified as having metabolic syndrome if you have 3 or more of the following; a) waist bigger than 40 inches (men), or 35 inches (women); b) triglycerides 150 (mg/dL) or greater; c) HDL cholesterol 40 (mg/dL) or less (men), or 50 (mg/dL) or less (women); d) blood pressure 130/85 (mmHg) or greater, for either number; e) fasting glucose 110 (mg/dL) or higher. So now you know.

Drinking diet soda is one of the few bad habits that I don’t have. For some reason diet soda gives me a stomachache. I wonder if my body thinks it is getting a rush of sugar, and then when it finds it has been fooled, extracts its revenge. Perhaps one of the few times that my body has done me a favor.

The study was published in Circulation (pubmed)

Technorati Tags: metabolic syndrome, diet soda

Popularity: 65% [?]

Written by Judith · Filed Under Diabetes, Diet, Weight

Comments

One Response to “Metabolic Syndrome, Chew (Drink) On It”

Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: What, Why, Who? : Life, aging and… on September 13th, 2008 5:32 pm

[…] The most common condition that increases the risk of non alcoholic fatty liver disease is metabolic syndrome. This is having several of the following, high fasting glucose, a big waist measurement, high blood pressure, high triglyceride levels and bad levels of cholesterol. (If you want more info on the current definitions and cut off points see the post metabolic syndrome chew drink on it.) […]

Got something to say?