14 DAY TRIAL // A team of researchers working with the universities of Stanford, Berkeley and San Francisco has recently reached the conclusion that people who are in the habit of drinking just one fizzy drink a day are likely to sooner or later develop type 2 diabetes.
As these specialists explain, the content of these beverages is significantly more detrimental to one's overall wellbeing than other products that contain the same amount of sugar-based calories.
Sources report that, after carrying out a thorough investigation into the sugar availability and the diabetes rates from a total of 175 countries, these scientists reached the conclusion that, although obesity continues to be a major issue, sugar intake alone can and should be linked to ever more cases of type 2 diabetes.
Interestingly enough, it appears that the presence of sugar in a population's food supply can cause people to develop diabetes regardless of how much they weigh.
Raw numbers suggest that adding 150 unnecessary calories to one's diet ups the prevalence of diabetes in the population by 0.1%.
On the other hand, the practice of getting said calories from fizzy drinks ups the diabetes prevalence by 1.1%.
“It was quite a surprise,” argued Dr. Sanjay Basu, a specialist now working with the University of Stanford.
“We’re not diminishing the importance of obesity at all but this data suggests that at a population level there are additional factors that contribute to diabetes risk besides obesity and total calorie intake, and that sugar appears to play a prominent role,” he went on to add.
The researchers wished to stress the fact that type 2 diabetes is a life-threatening condition, meaning that it can cause an individual to experience cardiovascular and/or kidney diseases, and sometimes even strokes.
Despite the fact that sugar has not yet been proven to cause diabetes, the fact remains that this sweet-flavored substance toys with a person's liver and pancreas, which is why it should be consumed in moderation.
“At the moment the evidence is not strong enough for us to be confident that sugar consumption has a direct effect on risk of Type 2 diabetes,” argued Dr. Matthew Hobbs of Diabetes UK.
Still, “Limiting the amount of sugar you consume in food and drinks is an important step in achieving a healthy, balanced diet.”