BOSTON—Barry Popkin, Ph.D., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, highlighted the significant increase in the consumption of caloric sweeteners across the globe during the past 20 years, with the main source being sweetened caloric beverages, including: soft drinks, fruit drinks, energy drinks, vitamin and other functional beverage waters, and health implications of this trend at the workshop "Calories from Beverages: An Underestimated Dietary Target for the Prevention/Management of Obesity/Type 2 Diabetes" held at the XV International Symposium on Atherosclerosis.
"We're facing a serious global public health threat that is caused in part by an upward trend in the consumption of sweetened caloric beverages combined with an accelerated shift toward inactivity, poor diet and obesity," said Dr. Popkin. "In order for Americans to better manage their health, they need to consider their daily intake of beverage calories." During this same time, research showed little change in water consumption and essentially no reduction in food intake to compensate for the additional beverage calories.
Frank B. Hu, M.D., Harvard Medical School delivered some statistics on beverage consumption. "During 1999 and 2000, regular soft drinks represented a surprising 7 percent of calories in the U.S. diet. That number has since increased to an estimated 9 percent to 10 percent. Putting our research together, we are able to understand the seriousness of this consumption trend.” Dr. Hu's research reveals a strong relationship between sweetened caloric beverage consumption and diabetes risk.
In addition experts highlighted other studies regarding this issue. Recent data from the Nurses' Health Study found that regular soft drink consumption was associated with an almost 49 percent increase in the risk of coronary heart disease in women, even after adjusting for body mass index (BMI) [Fung TT. Am J Clin Nutr 2009]. Data from the Framingham and Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) suggests a strong association between soft drink consumption and the prevalence of metabolic syndrome. For example, a recent study found that middle-aged adults who consumed at least one soft drink per day had a 44 percent higher adjusted risk of developing metabolic syndrome compared with those who consumed soft drinks infrequently [Dhingra R et al. Circulation 2007]. And, eight-year data from the Nurses' Health Study II found an increased consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages was associated with a significant increased risk of diabetes, regardless of whether the data controlled for BMI [Schulze MB et al. JAMA 2004].
