Sweetened Drinks May Heighten Heart Disease Risk

(HealthDay News) — Soft drinks and other sugar-sweetened beverages can seriously damage cardiovascular health, a new review finds. The report was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

The added sugar in sodas, fruit drinks, sweet teas, and energy drinks affects the body in ways that increase risk of MI, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and stroke, review author Vasanti Malik, ScD, a nutrition research scientist at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, told HealthDay.

Consuming one or two servings a day of sugar-sweetened beverages has been linked to a 35% greater risk for MI or fatal CVD, a 16% increased risk of stroke, and as much as a 26% increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes, the report concluded.

“Reducing the consumption of these drinks, it’s not going to solve the heart disease epidemic, but it’s one step that can have a measurable impact,” Malik said. “It’s not the only thing that needs to be done, but it’s a very important thing.”

Reference

1. Malik VS, Hu FB. Fructose and Cardiometabolic Health: What the Evidence From Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Tells Us. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2015;66(14):1615-1624.