Sweet Drinks And Early Death
These findings come from an Emory University study including 13,440 adults whose average age was 64. The researchers found that the more sweet drinks – including fruit juices – these seniors consumed, the higher their risk of dying over an average of six years compared with study participants who drank the fewest sweet drinks. Surprisingly, drinking a 12-ounce glass of juice daily increased the risk of dying during the study by 24 percent, compared to an 11 percent increase linked to consuming a sweet soft drink daily. Most of the participants – 94 percent – reported drinking fruit juice compared to 81 percent who drank other sweet beverages. These findings aren’t the only ones linking sugar–sweetened beverages to premature death. A study from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health published in April 2019 found that drinking two or more servings of sugar–sweetened beverages daily raised the risk of early death from cardiovascular disease by 31 percent. A single extra sugary drink per day was linked to a 10 percent increased risk of premature death from heart disease. The risk was higher among women than men.
Source:
Jean A. Welsh et al, “Association of Sugary Beverage Consumption with Mortality risk in U.S. Adults: A secondary Anlysis of Data from the REGARDS Study,” JAMA Network Open, May 17, 2019, doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.3121
Vasanti S. Malik et al, “Long-Term Consumption of Sugar-Sweetened and Artificially Sweetened Beverages and Risk of Mortality in US Adults,” Circulation, April 30, 2019, doi/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.118.037401
More from this week’s bulletin:
- Crossword Puzzles For Your Brain
- Replacing Meat With Fish
- This week’s recipe: Grilled Fish With Tropical Relish
