Soda increases the risk of heart attack

Does sugar harm your heart? Well.........................................

"You sit at a fast food restaurant with your cheeseburger, fries and cola, knowing full well that the fatty, cheesy meat and oily fries aren't good for your ticker.

When researchers recently examined 88,000 women participants in the decades-long Nurse's Health Study and controlled for a fatty diet (along with smoking, obesity and other known cardiovascular risks), they discovered that sweetened soda pop causes trouble all by itself. Drinking even one 12-ounce can of regular soda daily boosts your risk of a heart attack by 24%; with two or more servings, the danger is further increased, by 35%, says lead author Teresa Fung, ScD, associate professor of nutrition at Simmons College , in Boston .

Fung was surprised at how quickly problems developed among the study participants. "We think of heart disease forming over a long period of time, but sugary beverage consumption increased the relative risk after just a few years," she said."

~ Via MORE Magazine July/Aug 2009, page 139.

H/T: Beth LeDune, RN – cardiac unit