According to a large long-term study of US men and women, the risk of early death related to sugary drink consumption was more pronounced among women than men.
The study, led by Harvard University’s Chan School of Public Health and published in the journal Circulation , also found that drinking one artificially sweetened drink a day instead of a sugary drink reduced the risk of premature death. However, drinking four or more sweetened beverages per day was associated with an increased risk of mortality in women.
“Our results provide additional support for limiting the consumption of sugary beverages and replacing them with other beverages, preferably water, to improve overall health and longevity,” said Vasanti Malik, a research scientist in the Department of Nutrition and lead author of the study.
Previous studies have shown that sugary drinks (carbonated and non-carbonated soft drinks, fruit drinks, energy drinks, and sports drinks) are the largest source of added sugar in the diet, especially in the United States. Although their consumption has been declining in the last decade, there has been an increase in the intake of these beverages among adults, with intake levels that exceed the dietary recommendation of consuming no more than 10% of daily calories from added sugars. Intake of sugary beverages is also increasing in developing countries , driven by urbanization and the commercialization of beverages, according to the authors.
Links have previously been found between sugary drink intake and weight gain and an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke, although few have analyzed the connection between sugary drink intake and mortality.
In the new study, the researchers analyzed data from 80,647 women who participated in the Nurses’ Health Study (1980-2014) and from 37,716 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (1986-2014). For both studies, participants answered questionnaires on lifestyle factors and health status every two years.
More risk among women
After adjusting for major diet and lifestyle factors, the researchers found that the more sugary drinks a person drank, the more they increased their risk of premature death from any cause. Compared with consuming sugary drinks less than once a month, consuming one to four sugary drinks per month was associated with a 1% increase in risk; two to six per week with an increase of 6%; one to two per day with an increase of 14%; and two or more per day with an increase of 21%. This increased risk of early death related to the consumption of sugary drinks was more pronounced among women than among men.
There was a particularly strong link between the consumption of sugary beverages and an increased risk of early death from cardiovascular disease . Compared with infrequent drinkers, those who drank two or more sugary drinks a day had a 31% higher risk of premature death from cardiovascular disease. Each additional drink per day was linked to a 10% increased risk of death related to cardiovascular disease.
Among men and women, there was a modest link between the consumption of sugary drinks and the risk of early death from cancer.
The researchers also looked at the association between the consumption of artificially sweetened beverages and the risk of premature death. They found that substituting sugary drinks for sweetened ones was associated with a moderately lower risk of premature death; But they also found a relationship between high levels of intake of sweetened beverages (at least four a day) and a slightly higher risk of general and cardiovascular disease-related mortality in women, for which they warned against excessive consumption of sweetened beverages .
“These findings are consistent with the known adverse effects of high sugar intake on metabolic risk factors and strong evidence that consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, an important risk factor for diabetes. premature death . The results also provide more information regarding policies to limit the marketing of sugary drinks to children and adolescents and to implement taxes on soft drinks because the current price of sugary drinks does not include the high costs of treating the consequences ” said Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition and a co-author of the work.
Referencia: Circulation. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
