DIABETES WATCH: Sugary drinks heighten risk
THE QUESTION People looking for an alternative to
sugar-sweetened soft drinks, which have been linked to diabetes, sometimes
choose a fruit drink instead. Is that a wise choice?
THIS STUDY analyzed data on 43,960 black women who did not have diabetes at
the start of the study and who reported their consumption of soft drinks,
orange and grapefruit juice and sweetened fruit beverages such as powdered
Kool-Aid drinks, fortified fruit drinks and other fruit juices. In a 10-year
span, 2,713 women were diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. Women who reported
drinking two or more sugar-sweetened soft drinks a day were 24 percent more
likely to have developed diabetes than were those who drank less than one a
month.
Drinking two or more sweetened fruit beverages a day increased risk by 31
percent. Drinking orange or grapefruit juice or diet soft drinks had no effect
on diabetes risk.
WHO MAY BE AFFECTED? African-American women, who have Type 2 diabetes at a
rate about twice that of white women in the United States.
CAVEATS Drink consumption was based on the women's responses to
questionnaires at the start of the study; data did not reflect any changes in
drink habits during the study. The authors theorized that orange and grapefruit
juice might have had no effect on diabetes because they usually are drunk with
a meal rather than between meals.
FIND THIS STUDY July 28 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.
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