Sweetened Soft Drinks Intake May Lead up to Premature Birth

Artificially sweetened drinks are advertised as a salubrious alternative to sugar-sweetened soft drinks, but they may boost the risk of giving birth to the child prematurely if the mother-to-be indulges in them, a recent study informs.

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a study that discloses the fact that the risk of premature labor can go up by 38 per cent if the expectant mother drinks one artificially sweetened soda or another soft drink per day.

The risk grows with every additional soda, coming to the impressive 80 per cent at the intake rate of four sodas a day for a woman of any kind of constitution.

It has already been found that sweetened soft drinks intake is linked with high blood pressure. But the aggravating effect the drinks produce on pregnancy is brought down to the influence of aspartame, one of the basic ingredients present in soft drinks. Finding its way to the body it breaks down into a number of toxic substances (formic acid, methanol, etc.) that add to the possibility of a premature birth.

Aspartame is also found to be linked to labor complications, seizures, and even tumors and disorders in the brain.

Lead researcher Thorhallur I. Halldorsson warned pregnant women against high consumption of sweetened soft drinks, saying that “it may be non-optional.”

Source of the image: Photl