A new research reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition says that consuming artificially sweetened beverages during pregnancy increases the risk of premature births. The research was carried out on approximately 60000 women in Denmark who testified on the number of soft drinks they include in their daily diet after nearly 25 weeks of being pregnant. Of these 5% women delivered babies before 37 weeks of pregnancy.
Pregnant women who consumed minimum one serving of diet soda were 38% more likely to have a preterm delivery against those expecting mothers who completely shunned artificially sweetened soda. The women who opted for at least 4 diet sodas per day were found to be an 80% higher risk of preterm delivery. These figures were found to be similar for both overweight and normal-weight women.
Both sugar sweetened and artificially sweetened soft drinks were linked to hypertension or high blood pressure which increases the chances of preterm delivery. Ironically, wide promotion is going on about diet drinks being a healthy alternative to juices and sugary sodas. But the point to be noted is that there’s not much research done on how safe can the artificial sweeteners be when consumed regularly.
The study wasn’t looking for specific artificial sweeteners and noted that most beverages contain a combination of these chemicals. However, the study reports about the existence of an indirect evidence which links aspartame, a sweetener, to the premature deliveries in animals. Once inside the body, aspartame turns into methanol and various other substances which can be converted to other toxic substances like formaldehyde and formic acid. Research on non-human primates has found a link between very low methanol exposure and shortened pregnancy along with labor complications.
The report, however, said that pregnant women consuming diet drinks need not be alarmed by the findings as these only seek warrants for further attention.
Source:
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
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by on 27. Jul, 2010 in Health News
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