Sweetened drinks responsible for thousands of deaths: Study

People fond of sodas and other sweetened drinks, would do well to take serious note of a recent study. Experts from Harvard, Tufts and Washington universities in the US and Imperial College London in the UK found that drinking sugary beverages could lead to 184,000 deaths every year worldwide, CBS News reported.

The journal Circulation has published the study. According to the experts, the figure would increase if no drastic action was taken.

On the other hand, the study found that dietary fat, once considered as the culprit behind various diseases, was not the villain it had been made out to be. Also, other studies, pointed out sugar intake as the reason behind various chronic diseases, obesity and fatality.

Diabetes was the main result of drinking sugary drinks, which claimed the lives of 133,000 people every year. The study further revealed that 45,000 people died from heart disease and some 6,450 from cancer.

The first detailed study on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) covered a global perspective, as also deaths related to sugar consumption.

The team's lead researcher, Dr Gitanjali Singh, said of the 20 countries with the highest casualties from sugary beverage consumption, almost half came from Latin America and the Caribbean, an implication that these regions had the most consumers of sweetened drinks.
 
Meanwhile, Dr Jane Sadler summarising seven ''bitter'' facts about sweetened beverages in a health blog on dallasnews.com, notes that:

• In the US, two out of three adults and one out of three children are obese or overweight.
• Regular consumers of 1-2 cans of sweetened drinks daily have a 26 per cent increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
• Over a 20-year span, consumption of just one sugary beverage daily might up the risk of heart attack by up to 20 per cent.
• The National Cancer Institute linked obesity to increased risk for multiple cancer types, including esophageal, pancreas, colorectal, uterine, breast (postmenopausal), thyroid, kidney and gallbladder.
• A 12-ounce cola could contain around 10 teaspoons of sugar and the average American consumed 22 teaspoons of sugar daily.
• Children who consumed an average of one 12-ounce soda daily developed a 60 per cent higher risk for obesity within an 18-month period.
• According to Tufts University, Mexico had the highest population of deaths attributed to overconsumption of sugary drinks: 30 per cent of deaths in people under age 45 while on the other hand, Japan's deaths from sugar drinks were very minimal as its population was more accustomed to drinking unsweetened teas.