A new study has found a link between drinking too many sugary beverages, including 100% natural fruit juice, and an increased risk of early death. The study was published in the journal JAMA Network Open.
The new study defined “sugary beverages” as both soda, fruit-flavored infusions, and 100% natural fruit juices that have no added sugar. (According to the study the sugar found in orange juice, although natural, is pretty similar to the sugars added to soda and other sweetened beverages.)
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Jean A. Welsh, a co-author of the study and an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Emory University in Atlanta, and her team, “repurposed data from the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke study,”1 analyzing the data of “13,440 adults 45 and older, nearly 60% men and almost 71% of them overweight or obese.”1
They found that:1
- People who consumed 10% or more of their daily calories as sugary beverages had a 44% greater risk of dying due to coronary heart disease and a 14% greater risk of an early death from any cause compared with people who consumed less than 5% of their daily calories as sugary beverages.
- Each additional 12-ounce serving of fruit juice per day was associated with a 24% higher risk of death from any cause, and each additional 12-ounce serving of sugary beverages per day was associated with an 11% higher risk.
- But a similar relationship between sugary beverages and death due to coronary heart disease was not found.
The authors of the study believe there are a couple of biological mechanisms that could explain the elevated risk of death: research suggests that sugary beverages increase insulin resistance (known to raise the risk of cardiovascular disease) and fructose consumption may stimulate hormones that promote weight gain around the waist.
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Marta Guasch-Ferré, a research scientist in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Dr. Frank B. Hu, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, wrote in an editorial published alongside the new study that although this is one of the first studies to look at sugary drinks and early death, the study is “limited in what it can tell us.”
- Because so few coronary heart disease-related deaths occurred, the analysis is considered weak;
- more time and a higher number of participants would probably give a stronger signal either way
- each participant’s sugary drink consumption was based entirely on self-reporting, which is not considered reliable
So, more testing is needed.
Therefore, your best bet is to first kick sugar-sweetened beverages from your diet. And if you still want something sweet, have some fresh squeezed, 100% fruit juice. You could even blend some of it and include the fiber so you aren’t just getting the fructose. But as in all things, too much of anything isn’t good for you so be mindful of your intake. (My editor is plant-based and only eats fruit or fruit juice in the morning.)
Seven US cities have levied taxes on sweetened drinks with added sugar in an effort to reduce consumption (and the complications excessive consumption causes- like serious weight gain). These laws often highlight how soda and other sugary beverages contribute to the obesity epidemic among kids and high rates of diabetes among adults.1
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