Sugary drinks linked to 200,000 deaths each year around the world

It has been claimed that the consumption of sugary soft drinks could be causing almost 200,000 deaths each year around the world.

The claims emanate from Harvard researchers who used data extracted from a huge investigation into causes of global disease – the 2010 Global Burden of Diseases study, and have now been able to link 180,000 deaths a year worldwide to high-sugar fizzy drinks.

Gitanjali Singh, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and lead author of the study presented the findings this week at the American Heart Association’s annual meeting in New Orleans.

After a painstaking five years spent putting the pieces together of a complex analysis into global fatalities, Singh and his colleagues were able to attribute sugary drinks to approximately 133,000 deaths from diabetes, 44,000 deaths from cardiovascular disease and 6,000 deaths from cancer during 2010.

There appeared to be a demographic division in the findings with a high proportion (78%) of the deaths occurring in the lower-to-middle income countries in comparison to wealthier nations. Being able to afford private healthcare could be a factor that contributed to this statistic.

The analysis found that Latin American and Caribbean countries had seen the most diabetes-related deaths linked to sugary drinks (38,000). In addition, East and Central Europe had the most heart-related deaths associated to sugary drinks (11,000).

From the 15 highest populated countries within the analysis, it was determined that Mexico had the highest sugary drink-associated death rate – 318 deaths per million adults. Japan was the country with the lowest sugary drink-associated death rate, at just 10 deaths for every million adults.

Sugar-sweetened drinks have been widely known to contribute weight gain and obesity. This then raises the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some types of cancer.

The U.S. study is more evidence that high-sugar, high-calorie fizzy drinks that offer no nutritional value are a danger to public health and playing a major part in the UK’s growing number of diabetes cases – described as a ‘public health emergency’ only a fortnight ago.

Gitanjali Singh released a statement about the findings of the study, commenting: “We know that sugar-sweetened beverages are linked to obesity, and that a large number of deaths are caused by obesity-related diseases. But until now, nobody had really put these pieces together. I think our findings should really impel policymakers to make effective policies to reduce sugary beverage consumption since it causes a significant number of deaths.”

However, the American Beverage Association has disputed the study, describing it as ‘more about sensationalism than science’. Releasing a statement, the group said: “It does not show that consuming sugar-sweetened beverages causes chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease or cancer – the real causes of death among the studied subjects. The researchers make a huge leap when they take beverage intake calculations from around the globe and allege that those beverages are the cause of deaths which the authors themselves acknowledge are due to chronic disease.”

Soft drinks branded ‘evil’ in new study

We are all drinking far more soft drinks than we used to, according to a new study undertaken by Bangor University. Many of us are now having one to two cans a day and as reported in last weeks article on Medical Specialists News; we are increasingly using sports drinks such as Lucozade whilst engaging in sports activities or visiting the gym. In fact, it is no surprise to learn that our consumption of soft drinks has more than doubled since 1985 from 10 gallons per person a year to more than 25 gallons.

Now we all know that soft drinks aren’t necessarily good for you but could they be more dangerous than we thought and in many more ways than we thought. In fact, are they that dangerous that they should carry a health warning?

That may sound a little alarming but not to Dr Hans-Peter Kubis, the man behind the Bangor University study. Dr Kubis stated, “Having seen all the medical evidence, I don’t touch soft drinks now; I think drinks with added sugar are frankly evil.”

Even moderate consumption of one can a day or just two a week may alter our metabolism so that we pile on weight. The research at Bangor University and also published in the European Journal of nutrition reported that soft drinks actually alter our metabolism so that our muscles use sugar for energy instead of burning fat. It seems that exposure to liquid sugar not only results in weight gain but that it also changes our metabolism and genes within our muscles perhaps permanently, leaving us less able to cope with rises in blood sugar. This in turn increases the risk of type 2 diabetes.

This research into soft drinks carried out at Bangor University is nothing new; in fact it is one in a long line of studies that have looked into the dangers of soft drinks. A study in March published in the American Heart Association’s journal, warned that men who drank one standard 12 oz can of sweetened beverage a day have a 20% higher risk of heart disease.

Perhaps most disturbing is the effect these sugary drinks are having on children. Four years ago, researchers at University College London’s Health Behaviour Research Centre, discovered a powerful and lucrative effect that sugary soft drinks have on youngsters. The study of 346 children aged around 11, found drinking soft drinks makes them want to drink more often even when they’re not actually thirsty and that their preference is for more sugary drinks.

Perhaps Dr Kubis highlighted the extent of the problem when acknowledging that he needed to do a much larger trial. His main problem was that he had difficulty in finding young people who had not previously been exposed to a lot of soft drinks.