Hold the Pepsi, Hold the Fries

I'm going to guess that most of us would not have considered french fries and cola drinks to be health foods. Some, like your humble correspondent, were taken in by the idea that diet versions of the soft drinks would be less unhealthy. A couple of new studies blow that one out of the water.

Consumption of diet drinks, it seems, is strongly correlated with so-called metabolic syndrome, as reported in the NYT story by Nicholas Bakalar.

Researchers have found a correlation between drinking diet soda and metabolic syndrome — the collection of risk factors for cardiovascular disease and diabetes that include abdominal obesity, high cholesterol and blood glucose levels — and elevated blood pressure.

Fried foods, surprise, surprise, are also bad, but not as bad. Ditto red meat and refined grains.

Combine that with an earlier report that cola drinks, diet or no, tend to kill your kidneys, and you have a recipe for knocking the heck out of my basic food groups.

So what does that leave? Nuts and grass just don't sound that appetising to me.

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