Adult-onset diabetes, which afflicts 17 million Americans,
is caused by the body either becoming resistant to insulin or
not producing enough of it.
"Rates of diabetes are skyrocketing. At the same time, over
the last couple of decades, consumption of sugar-sweetened
beverages has increased," said Meir Stampfer of the Harvard
School of Public Health in Boston, one of the authors of a
study examining the link.
Between 1977 and 1997, U.S. soft drink consumption rose 61
percent among adults and more than doubled among children, the
study said. The increased incidence of diabetes has also
paralleled the growing obesity epidemic, the report said.
As part of a study of 91,000 female nurses participating in
the second phase of the Nurses Health Study, based at Brigham
and Women's Hospital in Boston, the Harvard researchers
isolated the relationship between frequent soft drink
consumption and diabetes. A total of 741 women developed
diabetes during the 1991 to 1999 study period.
"Women who were drinking sugar-sweetened soft drinks every
day or more than once a day had an 80 percent increased risk of
diabetes compared with women who hardly ever drank sugared
sodas," Stampfer said.
Soft drinks are absorbed quickly and one does not feel full
despite consuming plenty of calories, the report said.
Women who drank one or more soft drinks per day gained, on
average, 17 pounds (7.7 kg) over the eight-year period, while
those who drank one soft drink per week or less gained 6 pounds
(2.7 kg) on average.
By contrast, women who consumed diet soft drinks or fruit
juice had a lower risk of developing diabetes or gaining weight
excessively, the report published in the Journal of the
American Medical Association (news - web sites) said.
"Soft drinks are the leading source of added sugar in the
American diet. They provide a large amount of excess calories
and no nutritional value," said Matthias Schulze, the study's
lead author.
