Get this: Diet soda is as dangerous as Davidoff cigars.

Study upon study has already proven the negative health effects of diet soda, including the ironic fact that these artificially sweetened drinks can actually lead to weight gain, not weight loss. Other ill health effects have also been linked to diet soda, especially the kind sweetened with the chemical aspartame.

Now, new research adds why is diet soda bad for you: Diet soda drinkers have a dramatically higher risk of a heart attack and stroke.

The website Healthier Talk reports on the study:

Researchers tracked 2,564 New York City seniors for a decade and found that 31 percent of those who drank diet soda every day suffered a heart attack or stroke versus 22 percent of those drank little to no diet soda.

That’s an increase in risk of 49% according to the data published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.