Soft Drinks linked to Diabetes, Obesity
Pakistan Times Health Desk Report

RESEARCHERS have linked daily consumption of sugary soft drinks and fruit punches to significant weight gain and a higher risk of type 2 diabetes.

For their study, Harvard School of Public Health researchers tracked 91,249 healthy women from 1991 to 1999. They found women who drank one or more sugar-sweetened soft drinks a day gained more weight than those who drank less than one a month and their risk of developing type 2 diabetes increased by 83 percent.

"Besides their potential contribution to weight gain, sugar-sweetened soft drinks might also increase risk of type 2 diabetes because of their high amount of rapidly absorbable carbohydrates. They contain large amounts of high-fructose corn syrup, which has similar effects on blood glucose as sucrose, and consumption of sugar-sweetened soft drinks induces a fast and dramatic increase in both glucose and insulin concentrations," wrote the researchers in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Diet soft drinks as well as non-sugar-sweetened fruit drinks were not linked to diabetes.

"Higher consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages is associated with a greater magnitude of weight gain and an increased risk for development of type 2 diabetes in women, possibly by providing excessive calories and large amounts of rapidly absorbable sugars," conclude the authors.●