Study confirms a high intake of sugary drinks need be linked to potential health problems

Apr 25, 2013 21:01 GMT  ·  By

A team of researchers writing in the journal Diabetologia maintain that, according to their investigations, just one daily can of a sugary soft drink need be linked to a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

More precisely, it appears that those who gulp down a 12oz (about 336 ml) can of sugary soft drink on a daily basis up their type 2 diabetes risk by as much as 22%, the specialists explain. Needless to say, those who drink more than one daily can of such beverages have an even higher type 2 diabetes risk.

EurekAlert informs us that, for the most part, studies concerning the link between sugary soft drinks and diabetes have focused on North American populations.

Because of this, these researchers wished to see whether or not the conclusions reached by these previous investigations also stand when it comes to the people living in Europe.

The countries targeted by these researchers were as follows: UK, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Sweden, France, Italy, and Netherlands.

Eventually, the researchers settled for looking into the dietary habits of 12,403 people who were suffering with type 2 diabetes and 16,154 who were not.

These people were all asked to provide information concerning their regular intake of juices, nectars, sugar-sweetened soft drinks and artificially sweetened soft drinks.

It was thus discovered that drinking 12oz of sugary soft drinks each day causes one's type 2 diabetes risk to increase by about a fifth.

The researchers have also confirmed that, statistically speaking, type 2 diabetes occurs the most often amongst overweight and obese people.

“Given the increase in sweet beverage consumption in Europe, clear messages on the unhealthy effect of these drinks should be given to the population,” specialist Dr. Dora Romaguera said.

“This finding adds to growing global literature suggesting that there is a link between consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, obesity and risk of development of type 2 diabetes,” Professor Nick Wareham further added.