The hypothesis had been formulated long ago: people who use two or more sugary drinks a day have an increased likelihood of risk of early death, when compared to those who drink less than one a month.
Now, however, the argument is proven by the latest study by the American Heart Association, the first to directly link sugary drink consumption with the risk of early death.
The study
The consumption habits and lifestyles of an audience of as many as 100,000 American men and women were put under observation by a team of Harvard researchers.
The study found that where higher consumption of sugary drinks appeared there was also a higher risk of early death from a variety of causes.
In particular, compared to those who claim to consume less than one per month, already consume in numbers of one to four per month raises the risk of premature death by 1 percent, while two to six per week by 6 percent, one to two sugary drinks a day can bring it up to 14 percent, while more than two drinks a day raise the odds as high as 21 percent.
Cardiovascular diseases
Cardiovascular disease is the most recurrent cause of early death related to the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages. More specifically, drinking two or more sodas a day means increasing the risk of early death caused by cardiovascular disease by 31 percent, while each additional single serving increases the odds by 10 percent.
The study shows an increased risk for women women, compared with men.
The risk of diabetes
“These findings are consistent with the known adverse effects associated with high sugar intake on metabolic risk factors and strong evidence that drinking sugar-sweetened beverages increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, itself an important risk factor for premature death” commented Walter Willett, among the authors of the research.
“Such evidence also provides further support for policies aimed at limiting the marketing of sugar-sweetened beverages to children and adolescents and increasing soda taxes.”
