A new study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society shows that increasing diet soda intake is directly linked to greater abdominal obesity in adults 65 years of age and older. Findings raise concerns about the safety of chronic diet soda consumption, which may increase belly fat and contribute to greater risk of metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular diseases. 
 
 Metabolic syndrome--a combination of risk factors that may lead to high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke--is one of the results of the obesity epidemic. In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 1.9 billion adults were overweight (body mass index [BMI] of 25 or more) in 2014. Of this group, 600 million people fell into the obese range (BMI of 30 or more)--a figure that has more than doubled since 1980. 
 
 In an effort to combat obesity, many adults try to reduce sugar intake by turning to nonnutritive or artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame, saccharin, or sucralose. Previous research shows that in the past 30 years, artificial sweeteners and diet soda intake have increased, yet the prevalence of obesity has also seen a dramatic increase in the same time period. Many of the studies exploring diet soda consumption and cardiometabolic diseases have focused on middle-aged and younger adults. 
 
 "Our study seeks to fill the age gap by exploring the adverse health effects of diet soda intake in individuals 65 years of age and older," explains lead author Sharon Fowler, MPH, from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. "The burden of metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease, along with healthcare costs, is great in the ever-increasing senior population." 
 
 The San Antonio Longitudinal Study of Aging (SALSA) enrolled 749 Mexican- and European-Americans who were aged 65 and older at the start of the study (1992-96). Diet soda intake, waist circumference, height, and weight were measured at study onset, and at three follow-ups in 2000-01, 2001-03, and 2003-04, for a total of 9.4 follow-up years. At the first follow-up there were 474 (79.1%) surviving participants; there were 413 (73.4%) at the second follow-up and 375 (71.0%) at the third follow-up. 
 
 Findings indicate that the increase in waist circumference among diet soda drinkers, per follow-up interval, was almost triple that among non-users: 2.11 cm versus 0.77 cm, respectively. After adjustment for multiple potential confounders, interval waist circumference increases were 0.77 cm for non-users, 1.76 cm for occasional users, and 3.04 cm for daily users. This translates to waist circumference increases of 0.80 inches for non-users, 1.83 inches for occasional users, and 3.16 inches for daily users over the total 9.4-year SALSA follow-up period. 
 
 "The SALSA study shows that increasing diet soda intake was associated with escalating abdominal obesity, which may increase cardiometabolic risk in older adults," Fowler concludes. The authors recommend that older individuals who drink diet soda daily, particularly those at high cardiometabolic risk, should try to curb their consumption of artificially sweetened drinks. 
 
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 This study is published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Media wishing to receive a PDF of this article may contact sciencenewsroom@wiley.com. 
 
 Full citation: "Diet Soda Intake Is Associated with Long-Term Increases in Waist Circumference in a Biethnic Cohort of Older Adults: The San Antonio Longitudinal Study of Aging." Sharon P.G. Fowler, Ken Williams and Helen P. Hazuda. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society; Published Online: March 17, 2015 (DOI: 10.1111/jgs.13376). 
 
 URL Upon Publication: http://doi. wiley. com/ 10. 1111/ jgs. 13376 
 
 Author Contact: To arrange an interview with Sharon Fowler, please contact Will Sansom with the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio: +1 210-567-2579 or SANSOM@uthscsa.edu. 
 
 About the Journal 
 
 The Journal of the American Geriatrics Society is a comprehensive and reliable source of monthly research and information about common diseases and disorders of older adults. For more information, please visit http://wileyonlinelibrary. com/ journal/ jgs .. 
 
 About the American Geriatrics Society 
 
 Founded in 1942, the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) is a nationwide, not-for-profit society of geriatrics healthcare professionals dedicated to improving the health, independence, and quality of life of older people. Its more than 6,200 members include geriatricians, geriatric nurses, social workers, family practitioners, physician assistants, consulting pharmacists, and internists. The Society provides leadership to healthcare professionals, policymakers, and the public by implementing and advocating for programs in patient care, research, professional and public education, and public policy. For more information, visit americangeriatrics.org. 
 
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 Older adults who drink diet soda may experience greater increases in their waist size over a decade than those who do not drink diet soda, according to a new study. 
 
 Researchers found that the average increase in waist circumference among the people in the study who drank diet soda daily was more than triple that of the people who did not drink diet soda. Among the people who drank diet soda only occasionally, the increase was more than double that of those who did not drink diet soda. 
 
 "The more people drank diet sodas, the more their waistlines expanded," said study author Sharon Fowler, a researcher at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. 
 
 Over the nine-year study, the waist size of the people who didn't drink any soda increased by an average of 0.8 inches. The average increase was 1.83 inches among those who drank diet soda occasionally, and 3.16 inches among those who drank it daily, according to the study. 
 
 In the study, the researchers followed a total of 749 Mexican Americans and European Americans who were 65 or older when the study started. The researchers asked them about their diet soda intake, and measured their waist circumference, height and weight when the study began, and at three follow-up points during the study period. [5 Experts Answer: Is Diet Soda Bad For You?] 
 
 Increased belly fat, which is usually what causes increased waist circumference, may raise people's risk of cardiovascular disease and other health issues because it increases inflammation, Fowler said. 
 
 The new study adds to a growing body of research on the potentially harmful effects of diet soda on human health. In a study presented in 2011 at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference in Los Angeles, researchers found that people who drink diet soda every day may have an increased risk of stroke and heart attack. In another study, published in 2012 in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, investigators also found a link between daily diet soda consumption and stroke, heart attack and death from these two conditions. 
 
 Moreover, the authors of a study presented at the American Academy of Neurology's annual meeting in San Diego in 2013 found a link between drinking diet soda daily and an increased risk of depression. 
 
 In the new study, the researchers said that it is not clear exactly why drinking diet soda may be linked to an increase in waist circumference. But it may have something to do with the sweeteners used in diet soda, and the way they may affect food-intake regulation, Fowler said. 
 
 For instance, in a study of mice that were exposed in utero to high levels of one such sweetener, aspartame, researchers found that the sweetener caused lesions in the brain region that normally receives the so-called "quit-eating" signal, Fowler said. As a result, the mice had more abdominal fat when they grew up, she said. Sweeteners used in diet sodas may have a similar effect in people, although more research is needed to see whether this is the case. 
 
 Fowler suggested that people use strategies to reduce or quit drinking diet soda, considering its potential negative effects on health. 
 
 "The more people can try to duplicate some of the things they love about diet sodas with something else that is really a whole food, the better," Fowler told Live Science. 
 
 For instance, if someone likes the sweetness of diet soda, eating some sweet fruit and chasing it with regular or sparkling water may be a good substitute, Fowler said. Or, for diet-soda drinkers who appreciate the caffeine, then replacing diet soda with coffee or tea could work, she added. 
 
 The new study was published today (March 17) in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 
 
 Follow Agata Blaszczak-Boxe on Twitter. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on Live Science. 

 Drinking diet soda doesn't do your waistline any favors, research is suggesting. 
 
 In a May 2016 study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics , researchers studied over 3,000 pregnant women and their infants and found that mothers that frequently consumed diet beverages (drinks with artificial sweeteners) were two times more likely to have babies who were overweight or obese at one year after birth compared to women who consumed fewer artificially sweetened drinks. While the study doesn't prove that diet drinks and artificial sweeteners cause weight gain, it certainly isn't doing the trend any favors. 
 
 Another 2015 study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found that people who drank diet soda gained almost triple the abdominal fat over nine years as those who didn’t drink diet soda. The study analyzed data from 749 people ages 65 and older who were asked, every couple of years, how many cans of soda they drank a day, and how many of those sodas were diet or regular. 
 
 Those answers ended up being extremely predictive of abdominal-fat gain, even after the researchers adjusted for factors like diabetes, smoking and levels of physical activity. People who didn’t drink diet soda gained about 0.8 in. around their waists over the study period, but people who drank diet soda daily gained 3.2 in. Those who fell in the middle — occasional drinkers of diet soda — gained about 1.8 in. 
 
 That change in waist circumference is especially concerning because it highlights an unfortunate truth about weight distribution: the belly is a bad place for extra pounds. The kind that pads the abs from the inside, called visceral fat, is associated with increased cardiovascular disease, inflammation and Type 2 diabetes. 
 
 MORE Is Diet Soda Bad for You? 
 
 These results, which the study authors call “striking,” add to the growing body of evidence that no- and low-calorie sweeteners may come with health concerns. Though scientists are still puzzling through the mechanisms by which diet soda seems to have the unintended consequence of weight gain, they have some ideas. Sugar-free sodas contain substances that sweeten up soda at 200-600 times the sweetness of sugar. 
 
 As TIME has previously reported , some experts believe that artificial sweeteners trigger sweetness receptors in the brain, which cause the body to prepare itself for an influx of calories. Even though those calories don't arrive, the body still craves them, and that may cause people to ultimately eat more calories overall, putting them at a risk for weight gain. 
 
 "Regular sugar has caloric consequences," says the study's senior author Dr. Helen Hazuda, professor of medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. And one of those is that it triggers satiety — a sense of fullness or satisfaction. "Your body is used to knowing that a sweet taste means you are ingesting energy in the form of calories that, if you don’t burn them off, is going to convert to fat," she says. Artificial sweeteners, however, confuse our bodies and weaken the link in our brains between sweetness and calories. That, Hazuda says, can lead to weight gain and cravings for sweeter and sweeter treats. 
 
 There may be something else at work. A recent study in mice showed that artificial sweeteners actually changed the gut bacteria of mice in ways that made them vulnerable to insulin resistance and glucose intolerance — both of which can lead to weight gain. And other mice research suggests that artificial sweeteners are associated with a drop in the appetite-regulating hormone leptin, Hazuda says. Leptin is the hormone that inhibits hunger. 
 
 MORE 13 Ways to Stop Drinking Soda for Good 
 
 The Calorie Control Council, an association that represents the reduced-calorie food and beverage industry — including alternative sweeteners — disagreed with the study's findings. "The use of low-calorie sweeteners (LCSs) in weight management has been shown to be beneficial," the group said in a statement. "While approaches to treat obesity in older individuals is controversial, diet modifications can be a successful part of a weight-management program for older adults." 
 
 Researchers in the new study found that belly-fat gain was most pronounced in people who were already overweight. "People who are already at cardiometabolic risk because they have higher BMIs are really in double or triple jeopardy," Hazuda says. "When they think they’re doing something good by drinking artificially sweetened beverages, it’s actually totally counterproductive."
– More bad news on the health effects of diet soda, specifically in regard to people 65 and older. Those who drink the stuff daily gain significantly more belly fat—a particularly dangerous kind of fat, say researchers in Eureka Alert. Specifically, study subjects who drank diet soda every day gained 3.2 inches around the waist over a decade, compared with 0.8 inches for those who drank none. Occasional drinkers fell between the two at 1.8 inches. That's especially troubling because belly fat is linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and other health ailments including diabetes, says one of the researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. So why does "diet" soda cause weight gain? That part remains unclear, but another researcher explains to Time that the artificial sweeteners used to replace sugar might be messing with the body's natural signals. “Your body is used to knowing that a sweet taste means you are ingesting energy in the form of calories that, if you don’t burn them off, is going to convert to fat," she says. The artificial sweeteners might confuse that message. For those hooked on the taste, the study team recommends eating sweet fruit and washing it down with water, and those who drink diet soda for a jolt can shift to tea or coffee, reports LiveScience. (Another study found that artificial sweeteners might actually raise blood-sugar levels.)