Postmenopausal women may want to reconsider a diet soda habit. In March, scientists from the University of Iowa presented findings that women who drank two or more diet sodas daily increased their risk of having a cardiovascular event (like a heart attack or stroke) by 30% compared to those who rarely consumed diet drinks. Even worse, the more frequent diet soda drinkers were 50% more likely to die from cardiovascular-related disease.

This was a major study. To obtain their data, the scientists followed about 60,000 older women for almost 9 years tracking their beverage-consumption habits and health data. The results of this study adds to a growing body of evidence linking diet drinks to heart disease and metabolic syndrome in both men and women.

Although soft drinks are unhealthy for a number of reasons, a major problem in most diet drinks is aspartame, also known as NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful and AminoSweet.

Raymond Francis has warned for many years that aspartame is a potent toxin implicated in all kinds of disease, especially neurological and emotional problems as well as cancer. Also, as explained by Dr. Russell Blaylock, aspartame contributes to heart disease. Not only does it promote high blood sugar and diabetes, known risk factors for heart disease, aspartame is also a type of neurotoxin Dr. Blaylock calls an “excitotoxin,” which over-activates receptors in blood vessel linings promoting atherosclerosis.

Fortunately, the public seems to be catching on that diet sodas aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. According to The Motley Fool, Coke and Pepsi have seen their diet soda sales plummet recently, and they are both scurrying to try to find a sweetener that doesn’t have the “baggage” now attached to aspartame. Unfortunately, no safe substitutes are on the horizon.

So should dieters go back to drinking regular soda pop? Not if they value their health! 

The only real solution is breaking the “sweetness habit.” Both refined sugar and sugar substitutes are physiologically addictive. If you are a “sweetness junky,” one of the best things you can do for your health is to go “cold turkey” and eliminate all refined and artificial sugar from your diet. It may be rocky for a few days, or even a week, but soon your taste buds will normalize—you’ll lose your sugar cravings, and you’ll probably reach a whole new level of health and well-being.

What to do with any leftover aspartame? Well, one woman we heard about found it excellent for getting rid of big black carpenter ants that had plagued her for years despite expensive attempts at removal. She emptied two packets of aspartame in the corner of each of her bathrooms, and the ants disappeared within 24 hours, never to return!