Sugary Drinks Linked To Higher Diabetes Risk!

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 310 million people worldwide have Type-2 diabetes. In the United Kingdom, about 2.9 million people are affected by it.

Type-2 diabetes, the most common form of diabetes, is a long-term condition characterized by insulin resistance, which means the body does not use insulin properly. Patients with Type-2 diabetes will have high blood sugar. Long term complications from high blood sugar can include heart disease, kidney failure, stroke, blindness and even limb amputations.

Researchers from various institutions in Europe found that drinking just a can of sugar-laced soda drink a day increases the risk of developing diabetes by more than a fifth. The results were published in July 2013 in ‘Diabetologia’, the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes.

In order to find out whether a link between sugary drinks and diabetes risk also existed in Europe, the researchers used data including 12,403 Type-2 diabetics and a random population of 16,154 people identified within EPIC (European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition). These participants, who came from Britain, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Sweden, France, Italy, and Netherlands, were questioned about their diet, including how many sugary and artificially sweetened soft drinks and juices they drank each day. 

It was found that every extra 340 ml serving of sugar-sweetened drink increases the risk of diabetes by 22 percent, compared with drinking just 1 can a month or less. The risk was lowered to 18 percent after taking into account people’s total calorie intake and body-mass index (BMI), a measurement of body fat based on height and weight. But consumption of pure or diluted fruit juice was found not significantly linked to diabetes risk.

Consumption of sugary drinks increases the risk of developing diabetes beyond the effect on body weight, the researchers warned, people can be thin yet still develop diabetes.

Results of this study were similar to previous research showing that North Americans who consume sugary beverages have a 25 percent increased risk of diabetes. While an association between consumption of sugary drinks and higher risk of Type-2 diabetes was found, the study did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

Surge in diabetes cases are caused by unhealthy lifestyle. The International Diabetes Federation forecast that the number of diabetics worldwide will almost double to an estimated 552 million by 2030.

Stay Away From Sugary Drinks To Prevent Stroke!

Numerous studies had shown that sugary drinks would lead to various health hazards including heart disease, obesity and diabetes. Such findings have prompted some legislative moves, for instance, ban is imposed in New York on super-sized sodas.

 

A group of researchers from Egypt and Japan conducted a study in Japan and found similar results. In their paper published on October 17, 2012 in ‘The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition’, they stated that women who consumed sugary drinks almost everyday were 83 percent more likely to develop ischemic stroke.

 

Ischemic stroke is a medical condition in which a blood vessel supplying blood to an area of the brain is blocked by a blood clot. It accounts for about 80 percent of all strokes, and it is the most common type of stroke in older adults.

 

In the study, only sugar-sweetened sodas and juices were considered as soft drinks, and so diet sodas or 100 percent fruit juices were excluded.

 

39,786 Japanese men and women aged between 40 and 59 years old answered a dietary, health and lifestyle questionnaire in 1990, 1995 and 2000. These participants were divided into 4 groups: those who rarely drank soft drinks, those who had 1 to 2 drinks a week, those who had 3 to 4 drinks a week, and those who had a soft drink almost everyday.

 

Until 2008, out of 11,800 women who rarely had a soft drink, 205 (1.7 percent) had an ischemic stroke. For 921 women who had a soft drink a day, 28 (3 percent) of them had such a stroke.

 

It could be the beverages’ effects on metabolism that raised the risk of stroke among women who favored soda drinking. High soft drink intake can cause weight gain, higher blood sugar and fats, as well as hypertension. This would in turn increase the risk of ischemic stroke.

 

However, no link between soft drink consumption and stroke risk was found in men. According to researchers, this could be because men with early signs of cardiovascular disease might have already reduced their intake of soda drink.

 

Meanwhile, the study did not find any association between soft drink and increased risk of heart disease. This probably because the underlying metabolic problems tied to soft drinks are more of a risk factor for stroke than for heart disease, as explained by researchers.