Soft drinks associated with diabetes, report finds

Posted by AregM

A review of published studies shows a clear and consistent relationship between drinking sugary (non-diet) soft drinks and poor nutrition, increased risk for obesity -- and increased risk for diabetes. There is no denying that sugar-loaded soft drinks are having "a negative impact on health," Dr. Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, said in a telephone interview. Having analyzed and reviewed 88 studies on the issue, Brownell and his colleagues conclude that recommendations to curb soft drink consumption on a population level are strongly supported by the available scientific evidence. Results of a study of more than 91,000 women followed for 8 years provides one of the "most striking" links between soft drinks and health outcomes, the investigators note in the American Journal of Public Health. In the study, women who drank one or more sodas per day -- an amount less than the U.S. national average -- were twice as likely as those who drank less than one soda per month to develop diabetes over the course of the study. When diet soda replaced regular soda in the analysis, there was no increased risk, "suggesting that the risk was specific to sugar-sweetened soft drinks," note the authors. ....Continued on http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/03/12/soft.drinks.diabetes.reut/