Tag Archives: Sugary

Nearly half of all Americans, 48 percent, last year weredrinking at least one glass of soda per day, Gallup reported inJuly. Among soda-drinkers, the average daily amount is 2.6 glasses.With such a high rate of soda consumption, Americans should beworried about new data that Harvard researchers have discoveredabout the danger of consuming sugary beverages.Gitanjali Singh, a postdoctoral research fellow at the HarvardSchool of Public Health in Boston and lead author of the study, hasspent five years researching the effect of sugary beverages withher Harvard colleagues. The team found that the artificial drinkswere directly responsible for 133,000 deaths from diabetes, 44,000deaths from cardiovascular disease and 6,000 deaths from cancer in2010.With so many Americans drinking themselves to death, theresearchers have termed the dangerous habit a ‘public healthhazard’. And while the cause of death is usually attributed toa specific disease, the researchers found that the high rate ofconsumption of sugary drinks directly caused those conditions.”We know that sugar-sweetened beverages are linked toobesity, and that a large number of deaths are caused byobesity-related diseases. But until now, nobody had really putthese pieces together,” Singh said while presenting the resultsof the study at the American Heart Association’s annual meeting inNew Orleans.The researchers made their conclusions based on data thatrecorded how many sugar-sweetened beverages people drank, dividedby age and sex. They then proceeded to determine how the amounts ofconsumed beverages affected obesity rates, diabetes, heart diseaseand certain cancers. Finally, the scientists calculated themortality rates of these conditions and concluded that 180,000deaths could be attributed to the consumption of unhealthybeverages.The results of the study come just one week after New York CityJudge Milton Tingling blocked Mayor Michael Bloomberg fromimplementing a city-wide ban on supersized sugary drinks.Bloomberg, angered about the rejection, said that the judge was“totally in error” and that he was “talking about livesversus profits”. The ban would have outlawed artificialbeverages served in containers 16 ounces or larger. Critics haveargued that Americans determined to drink large quantities of sodacould simply order multiple drinks or refill them – and that therestriction would simply turn New York into a “nanny state”.Whether or not lawmakers should have control over Americans’consumption is still a matter or debate. But the researchers claimthe fact that sugary drinks are unhealthy has been confirmed.However the American Beverage Association has publiclycriticized the Harvard study, claiming that the researcherscouldn’t possibly link deaths to sugary drinks.”It does not show that consuming sugar-sweetened beveragescauses chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease orcancer – the real causes of death among the studied subjects,”the industry group said in a statement. “The researchers make ahuge leap when they take beverage intake calculations from aroundthe globe and allege that those beverages are the cause of deathswhich the authors themselves acknowledge are due to chronicdisease.”But the authors claim that five years of research has allowedthem to draw solid conclusions linking high consumption of sugarydrinks to the diseases that ultimately killed its victims.”I think our findings should really impel policymakers tomake effective policies to reduce sugary beverage consumption sinceit causes a significant number of deaths,” Singh said, addingthat she thinks “cause” is a fitting word despite the limitationsof the association study.Dr. Richard Besser, ABC News’ chief health and medical editor,compared sugary drinks to cigarettes – neither directly cause aperson’s death, but both cause diseases that are often fatal.”It is quite frightening to see the rise in chronic diseasesas people around the world consume more and more sugarydrinks,” Besser said. “It reminds me of the way lung canceris on the rise around the world as more and more people smokecigarettes.” … Read More