Researchers in England discovered that one extra can of soda a day significantly increases a person’s likelihood of developing diabetes in their lifetime.
According to their findings, consuming an additional 12 ounces of sugar-sweetened soda a day was associated with a 22% increased risk for developing diabetes, and artificially sweetened soft drinks were even more dangerous, as they were associated with a 52% increased risk.
While the new data is eye-opening, this is hardly the first study to link the negative effects sugar has on the body. Researchers in this study said the main reason why soda intake was linked to diabetes was because sugar-sweetened beverages significantly impact a person’s weight and blood-glucose levels.
To conduct the study, researchers surveyed over 15,000 participants from eight European countries. The participants were asked to answer a series of questions regarding their health and dietary choices. Some of the questions included:
- Individual food/beverage consumption habits
- Food intake over the year leading up to the survey
- Types of beverages a person consumed (juice, water, soft drinks, etc.)
- Amount of each beverage consumed daily and weekly
- Other relevant factors, including smoking habits, alcohol consumption, education, physical activity and BMI.
In addition to their findings about diabetes, researchers concluded:
- Physically active males with a high waist circumference were more likely to be “high-level” consumers of soft drinks.
- Young, physically active females were more likely to drink juice or nectars.
- There was no association between the consumption of juice or nectars and an elevated risk of diabetes.
- Individuals who consumed one or more soft drinks a day saw a 58% increased risk of diabetes compared to the group who consumed the lowest amount of soda.
- Soft drink consumption remained significantly linked to diabetes both before and after adjusting for a person’s BMI.
Researchers said their findings were consistent with similar studies conducted in the United States.
“The observed association between sugar-sweetened soft drinks and diabetes in the present analysis is of similar magnitude as the association reported in a meta-analysis of eight prospective studies, which was based on 15,043 diabetes cases mostly from the U.S.A.,” researchers said in their conclusion.
Dr. Silverman comments
Many parents tell their children “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”, but a renewed look at sugar intake might be even more beneficial than grabbing a Granny Smith every day. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, excess sugar can be extremely detrimental to a person’s health in the long run.
The problem for many people is that they don’t see any immediate consequences for consuming huge amounts of sugar. If you try to eat pizza while it still hot, you’ll burn the room of your mouth, but if you drink three sodas a day, you won’t notice any direct consequences other than a possible influx of energy.
We’ve seen similar problems when it comes to smoking. Teens and young adults don’t see the immediate consequences of their actions, but regulators have forced tobacco companies to issue product warnings on their labels. This begs the question; if tobacco companies must print cancer warnings on their packs of cigarettes, shouldn’t soda companies be required to print a diabetes warning on their cans?
Related source: MedPage Today
