Have Sugar-sweetened Beverages Led to an Increase in Diabetes, Heart Disease and Healthcare Costs?
More Americans now drink sugar-sweetened sodas, sport drinks and fruit drinks daily, and this increase in consumption has led to more diabetes and heart disease over the past decade, researchers reported at the American Heart Associations (AHA) 50th annual conference on cardiovascular disease epidemiology and prevention. Using the coronary heart disease (CHD) policy model, researchers estimate that the increased consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages between 1990 and 2000 contributed to 130,000 new cases of diabetes, 14,000 new cases of CHD and 50,000 additional life-years burdened by CHD over the past decade. Sugar-sweetened soda, sport and fruit drinks (not 100 percent fruit juice) contain equivalent calories, ranging from 120 to 200 per drink, and thus play a role in the nations rising tide of obesity, researchers said. Previous research has linked daily consumption of these sugary beverages to an increased risk of diabetes, even apart from excessive weight gain. Through the CHD m
