Guzzling diet soda raises premature birth risk

New research suggests that drinking lots of artificially sweetened beverages may be linked to an increased risk of premature births.

“It may be non-optional for pregnant women to have high consumption of these types of products,” said Dr Thorhallur I Halldorsson of the Statens Serum Institut in Copenhagen, one of the researchers on the study.

‘Diet’ drinks are widely promoted as a healthy alternative to sugary sodas and juices, but Halldorsson and his colleagues note that there has been little research on the safety of regular consumption of artificial sweeteners in humans.

Soft drinks - both artificially sweetened and sugar sweetened - were recently linked to high blood pressure, the researchers add, which increases the risk of premature delivery.

To investigate whether there might be a direct link, the researchers looked at nearly 60,000 Danish women who reported on their diet, including how many soft drinks they had each day, at around 25 weeks of pregnancy.

Around five per cent of women delivered their babies before 37 weeks.

Women who had at least one serving of artificially sweetened soda a day while they were pregnant were 38 per cent more likely to deliver preterm than women who drank no diet soda at all, the researchers report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Women who had at least four diet sodas a day were nearly 80 per cent more likely to deliver preterm. The association was the same for normal-weight and overweight women.

The researchers did not report the actual risk of premature babies in each group. However, according to the March of Dimes, one in eight babies - or around 13 per cent - is born too soon.

This means that if drinking diet soda does indeed increase risk, a woman who drank at least one diet soda daily would have a 17 per cent risk, while her risk would be around 22 per cent if she drank four or more diet sodas.

In a statement, the Calorie Control Council, a lobbying group for companies that make and distribute low-calorie foods, called the study “misleading”.

“This study may unduly alarm pregnant women. While this study is counter to the weight of the scientific evidence demonstrating that low-calorie sweeteners are safe for use in pregnancy, research has shown that overweight and obesity can negatively affect pregnancy outcomes,” said Beth Hubrich, a dietician with the council.

Because only diet soda was linked to preterm delivery, the findings suggest that the artificial sweetener itself, not soda drinking, could account for the relationship, the researchers say. However, they add, other possible causes for the link cannot be ruled out.

The researchers did not look at specific artificial sweeteners, and Halldorsson noted that many beverages contain more than one of these chemicals. However, he and his colleagues say, there is indirect evidence linking the sweetener aspartame to preterm delivery in animals.

While pregnant women who consume soft drinks should not be alarmed by the findings, Halldorsson said, “what we are seeing warrants further attention”.

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