Posted on 08/25/2004 4:33:09 PM PDT by truthandlife
Drinking at least one sugar-sweetened soft drink or fruit punch daily nearly doubles the risk of diabetes, according to the first large study to examine the suggested link.
Women who drank less than one of the beverages a month had half the risk of developing diabetes than those who drank one a day, according to the study of 91,000 nurses.
The results have been published in The Journal Of The American Medical Association.
Women who increased the amount of sugar-sweetened drinks they consumed from one or less than that a week to one or more daily were also most likely to gain weight, picking up nearly 8kg in eight years.
The study provides more grist for a long- standing debate among nutritionists, government panels and the food and beverage industry about whether added sugars contribute to obesity and chronic diet-related diseases.
The research is part of a long-running Harvard University-based study of diet, health and disease in 300,000 people.
The research has produced influential findings on the dangers of trans-fatty acids, and on the links between obesity and chronic disease and between consumption of red meat and colon cancer.
The latest study was adjusted for potential risk factors for diabetes, such as lack of physical activity, family history and body mass index, a measure of whether someone is overweight.
During the research period, there were 741 new cases of diabetes among the nurses, who ranged in age from 20s to 40s.
An editorial accompanying the study endorsed its conclusions.
The study 'provides strong, scientifically sound evidence that excess calories from soft drinks are directly contributing to the epidemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes, at least in the United States, and should help convince the US government that further changes in health policy are needed', wrote Dr Caroline Apovian, a physician and director of the Nutrition and Weight Management Centre at Boston Medical Centre.
The US National Institutes of Health funded the study, which was conducted by researchers with the Harvard School of Public Health, Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Boston Children's Hospital.
Lobbyists for beverage manufacturers and the American Beverage Association assailed the study's conclusions.
'The conclusions are scientifically unsound,' said Mr Richard Adamson, the beverage group's vice-president for scientific and technical affairs.
'It's a totally unhealthy lifestyle that increased the risk.
'These women smoked more, they ate more, they had less protein intake, they had less cereal fibre intake, they exercised less. Give me a break, no wonder they had increased risk of type 2 diabetes,' said Mr Adamson.
The American Diabetes Association does not single out any food or beverage as causing the disease, said Dr Nathaniel Clark, a physician who is the group's national vice-president for clinical affairs.
Dr Clark said he believes extra weight, rather than high sugar consumption, triggered diabetes in the women, but added it was true that researchers could not account for the increase in diabetes solely on weight gain.
The extra kilos accounted for only half the increased risk of diabetes, said Dr JoAnn Manson, chief of preventive medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and an author of the study.
Researchers theorised that the risk of diabetes may increase because the sugars in sweetened drinks are rapidly absorbed, raising blood sugar levels quickly and eventually leading to insulin resistance.
The study's authors called for public health strategies to decrease consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages.
Dr Manson said that in the last 20 years, soft-drink consumption has increased more than 60 per cent in adults and has more than doubled in children.
'These trends do parallel the increased epidemic of obesity and type 2 diabetes, in both children and adults,' she said. 'There is an association.'
The study also looked for a link between diet soda and diabetes, because of the caramel colouring that is in both diet and sugar-sweetened beverages.
It found a 'slight, non-significant' increased risk.
The study did not find a link between fruit juice and diabetes.
Researchers said that could be because the naturally occurring sugars in fruit juice affect the body differently than the added sugars in sweetened drinks, or because the nutrients, fibre and plant chemicals in fruit juices may counteract the effects of sugar.
Sweetened soft drinks are the largest single food source of calories for Americans, contributing 7 per cent of total calories consumed, according to the accompanying editorial in the journal.
To meet federal nutritional guidelines, the US Department of Agriculture says Americans would need to cut in half their consumption of added sugars, found in products like sweetened drinks and many processed foods.
The medical journal's editorial calls on the government to redefine guidelines for sugar consumption, especially in soft drinks, and to support efforts to remove soda machines from schools or replace the products with healthier options.
Sugar is bad and stuff.
ping!
< / sarcasm >
High fructose corn syrup is even worse. ;)
soft drinks will become the new cigarettes.. villified, socially unnacceptable.. not outright banned or illegal but so reprehensible that they might as well be.
Uh oh.....wait till I tell my classmates at school : (
One of the rules in my household while my kids (five) were growing up was "No soda pop in the house." Also candy only on special occasions and definitely not during Advent and Lent.
They all have good teeth and none are overweight or headed for diabetes!
Parents need to make and enforce rules. Kids don't make the rules, because they don't know what is best for them.
There......you heard it with both barrels from one parent!
DRUM ROLL Pleaseeeee...... you are going to die even if you live in a constant state of deprivation and sacrifice, yep! You can say you heard it here first!.. :)
Well, Atkins here ...
Well I am not so sure a 64 ounce super big gulp should be part of one's food repertoire :-)
In another study, it was determined that those who spend one hour or more in the sun each day are twice as likely to develop a suntan than those who spend less than an hour a month in the sun.
with pardon to Groucho.... I wouldn't be a member of any party that would have me as a member...
"DRUM ROLL Pleaseeeee...... you are going to die even if you live in a constant state of deprivation and sacrifice, yep! You can say you heard it here first!.. :)"
Refined white sugar... has only been available in cheap large quantities for a relatively short amount of time.
Yeah, next thing you know, those busy bodies will say drinking a quart of whisky is bad for your health.
Why not have a nice BIG cold drink from time to time? However, if that someone indulges that is in a risk group, of overweight, as in obesity, diabetes, and shrug off the consequences of such a stupid act with the almost guaranteed results.. DRINK UP, get it over with, the sooner the better.. :)
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