Soda Increases Risk of Diabetes 83%

Those who sipped at least one sugary drink every day had an 83 percent higher chance of developing type 2 diabetes. Adults who regularly drink sugar-sweetened beverages appear to be at a higher risk of both diabetes and obesity.

U.S. investigators found that women who sipped at least one sugary drink every day had an 83 percent higher chance of developing type 2 diabetes — the most common form of the disease that is linked to obesity — than women who said they had less than one such drink per month.

Moreover, women who increased their intake from less than one sugar-sweetened soft drink per week to at least one drink per day tended to gain more weight over a four-year period than women with any other beverage-sipping habit.

Women who drank large amounts of sweetened fruit punch also appeared to be at higher risk of both obesity and diabetes, the researchers report in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Dr. Caroline M. Apovian stated that, “previous research has also shown that kids who are heavy soda-drinkers have a higher risk of obesity, suggesting that sugary soft drinks put people in particular danger of weight gain.”

"There’s something about liquid, sugar calories… that exerts an added problem," said the researcher, who is based at Boston Medical Center and Boston University School of Medicine in Massachusetts.

In an interview, Apovian explained that liquid calories — such as the sugars added to sodas and fruit punch — may not be processed in the brain in the same way that sugars in food are, thereby preventing your body from letting you know you’ve had enough calories, she said.

For instance, women who started to drink more sugary soft drinks during the study period did not compensate for the extra calories by eating less food — in fact, they tended to eat more.

Liquid calories are relatively new, anthropologically speaking, Apovian explained, and the human body may not have evolved to the point where it can equate calories from drinks with calories from food. Indeed, between 1977 and 1997, soft drink consumption rose by 61 percent among adults, coinciding with an increase in both obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Study author Dr. Frank B. Hu said he hopes these findings help people realize the dangers of drinking too many sugary calories. "Our study should increase people’s awareness about health hazards of soft drinks and lead to behavioral and public health policy changes that help to limit consumption of soft drinks in both adults and children."

For the study, the researchers, led by Hu of the Harvard School of Public Health in Massachusetts, analyzed data from more than 90,000 women followed between 1991 and 1999, noting their weight and diet, and who developed diabetes. The link between soft drink habits, obesity and diabetes persisted even after the authors removed the influence of factors such as physical activity and fat intake.

Apovian added that heavy fruit juice drinkers did not show a higher risk of obesity or diabetes. Fruit juice is sweetened with natural — not added — sugars, she said, which may not pose the same risks, and juice also contains antioxidants that may counteract any negative effects of the natural sugars.

Sugar-sweetened soft drinks may also increase the risk of diabetes by encouraging weight gain, Apovian said. In addition, she said that such drinks increase sugar levels in the blood relatively quickly, which can increase the risk of developing insulin resistance, a condition that often precedes type 2 diabetes.

Journal of the American Medical Association, August 25, 2004.

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