American Kids Drinking More Diet Drinks

It seems like every day we're getting news of how many sugary drinks kids are consuming today. And it's not just soda kids are drinking: more American children are drinking diet drinks, with a huge increase over the last decade.

Reuters reports that 12.5 percent of children drank diet drinks in 2008; it's a 6 percent increase over the last decade. Researchers didn't expect such a large increase. And it causes alarm for research on sugary drinks: "... The challenge is that there are no studies that have looked at the long-term health effects of artificial sweeteners in growing children," said head researcher Miriam Vos, Ph.D., of Emory University to Reuters. 

Of course, the study only looked at participants' eating habits for 24 hours, making the study slightly limited. It sounds like more studies on children's drinking habits are needed.

(Photo Modified: Flickr/JohnAshley)