The beverages are also tied to 180,000 yearly deaths worldwide

Mar 20, 2013 09:21 GMT  ·  By

A startling new report says that sugary drinks can be linked to roughly 180,000 yearly deaths worldwide. Of these, 25,000 are reported in the United States alone.

The specialists who took the time to research the impact that such beverages have on public health worldwide maintain that, according to their investigations, a high intake of sugary drinks can cause people to develop medical conditions such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes and various types of cancer.

Thus, although it is very much true that sugary drinks are not directly responsible for the death of thousands of people, the fact remains that their being present in these individuals' diets allegedly harms their overall wellbeing and makes them more vulnerable to life-threatening health issues.

“This type of study cannot prove cause-and-effect. Sugary beverage consumption is often paired with other unhealthy food choices or behaviors. Chronic diseases, such as heart disease and diabetes, are the result of many factors, not just excess sugar intake,” argued specialist Lona Sandon, who did not take part in this research project.

WebMD reports that, contrary to common held assumptions, deaths that can be linked to high intake of sugary drinks are not all that often amongst people who seldom experience financial difficulties.

Quite the contrary: it appears that most of these deaths have been reported by middle- and low-income countries, the researchers explain.

As was to be expected, the sugary drinks industry did not take lightly to this report. Hence the American Beverage Association's issuing the following statement:

“This [study], which is neither peer-reviewed nor published, is more about sensationalism than science. (…) The researchers make a huge leap when they illogically and wrongly take beverage intake calculations from around the globe and allege that those beverages are the cause of deaths which the authors themselves acknowledge are due to chronic disease.”

The findings of this research were publicly presented this past Tuesday during a meeting of the American Heart Association which took place in New Orleans.