Sweetened Drinks Linked To Increased Death Risk From CVD

A new study has been published in the “Circulation” journal, which is a publication from the AHA of the American Association of Heart. According to the results of this study, the death risk of people increased proportionately with their consumption of greater number of sugary drinks. To find the correlation between the two, researchers studied data on 37,716 men involved in the follow-up study for health professionals, along with 80,647 women enrolled in the health study for nurses.

After imposing control on the remaining physical activity, BMI and dietary factors, the team was able to determine the association of sugary drinks with elevated mortality rates arising from CVD or cardiovascular diseases along with greater cancer rates. Also, they investigated the link between death and drinks that are sweetened artificially.

The researchers discovered that if they replaced a sugar-based drink with beverage sweetened artificially, the death risk was somewhat replaced. However, the consumption of four or greater number of such beverages sweetened artificially had a direct correlation with elevated death risk among women.

According to Vasanti Malik, who is the lead author of the study as well as a research scholar in the Nutrition Department at Boston’s Harvard T.H Chan Public Health School, the consumption of water instead of sugar-based drinks can prove to be a healthy option as it can potentially contribute to life longevity. She further said that diet soda may be helpful for consumers who have sugary drinks frequently to bring down their consumption. However, Malik stressed on water being the healthiest and best choice.

CVD accounts for nearly one in every three deaths recorded in the U.S. It is responsible for a growing number of deaths worldwide as compared to every type of cancer as well as chronic respiratory diseases put together. Tobacco smoking, poor nutrition and absence of any form of physical activity are the risk factors associated to CVD.