Diet Sodas Affect Kidneys

CBS 2

Even though a lot of folks try to stick to water these days, it’s not tough to find die-hard diet soda drinkers.

Lien Pollio admits to how many times a day she partakes of the diet beverage: “Three times, lunch, dinner and nighttime.”

“Probably about two 20-ounces a day depending on whether or not I’m tired,” said Kelly Fox, another diet soda drinker.

And Sharilee Hill said, “I used to drink Diet Redbull but then I switched to Diet Mountain Dew. We drink a lot of it.”

However, one study examined more than 3,000 women for 11 years, and found those who drank two or more diet sodas a day were at double the risk for kidney damage.

The researchers did not learn whether it was the soda or the artificial sweetener in the drink that caused the damage.

“You can’t conclude that the sodas caused this problem conclusively but it suggests that there’s an affect on kidney function so people have to be aware that there’s a possible issue in doing anything in excess,” said Dr. David Goldfarb, kidney specialist with NYU Langone Medical Center.

Goldfarb said this is one of the first studies on the effects of diet soda.. and a lot more needs to be done before people make drastic changes. “They should not be throwing out their diet soda at this point but like I said I think moderating their intake of diet soda is a reasonable thing to do.”

The diet soda lovers we found said say the study is interesting but they plan to keep on chugging their favorite drink.

“There are so many other things that we can do that are a lot worse for us so we figure, if that’s our only vice we’re doing good,” said Katie Blanch.

Two ladies said they’ve run five marathons in the last 6 months, so they’re balancing things out with lots of exercise.