Soft drinks a diabetes risk

As diabetes rates soar around the world, some scientists believe there could be a link with increasing consumption of soft drinks.

Scientists in the US this week said the rise in diabetes cases in that country might be at least partly caused by spikes in blood sugar and insulin levels triggered by the sugary drinks.

Adult-onset diabetes, which afflicts more than 170 million people around the globe according to a UN study, is caused by the body either becoming resistant to insulin or not producing enough of it.

"Rates of diabetes are skyrocketing. At the same time, over the last couple of decades, consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages has increased," said Meir Stampfer of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, one of the authors of a study into the link.

Between 1977 and 1997, US soft drink consumption rose 61 per cent among adults and more than doubled among children, the study said. The increased incidence of diabetes has also paralleled the growing obesity epidemic, the report said.

The Harvard researchers isolated the relationship between frequent soft drink consumption and diabetes as part of a study of 91,000 female nurses participating in the second phase of the Nurses Health Study at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

A total of 741 women developed diabetes during the 1991 to 1999 study.

"Women who were drinking sugar-sweetened soft drinks every day or more than once a day had an 80 per cent increased risk of diabetes, compared with women who hardly ever drank sugared sodas," Stampfer said.

Soft drinks are absorbed quickly and people who drink them do not feel full despite consuming plenty of calories, the report said.

Women who drank one or more soft drinks per day gained, on average, 7.7kg over the eight-year period, while those who drank one soft drink per week or less gained 2.7kg on average.

By contrast, women who consumed diet soft drinks or fruit juice had a lower risk of developing diabetes or gaining weight excessively, said the report, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"Soft drinks are the leading source of added sugar in the American diet. They provide a large amount of excess calories and no nutritional value," said Matthias Schulze, the lead author.

The study did not find a link between drinking fruit juice and diabetes. Its authors suggest that may be because naturally occurring sugars may have a different effect than sugars which are added to drinks.

Other substances in juice such as vitamins, minerals and fibre may also have beneficial effects, counterbalancing the potential harm done by sugar.

The American Beverage Association, an industry group, said the conclusion that soft drink consumption was directly linked to diabetes was "inexplicable" and "inflammatory".

"A careful reading ... reveals that it was an unhealthy lifestyle, not consumption of a food or beverage, that increased the women's risk for [adult-onset] diabetes," said Dr Richard Adamson.

NOT SO SWEET

Type 2 diabetes:

* Is the most common type of diabetes. It affects about 100,000 New Zealanders.

* Usually occurs after the ages of 30 or 40 years, but more teenagers and children are developing the disorder.

* Happens when the body does not produce enough insulin, or does not recognise the insulin that is present. The result is high sugar levels in the blood.

* Causes problems such as fatigue, repeated infections, feeling thirsty, frequent urination and blurred vision.

* Cannot be cured, but can be managed.

* Can often be avoided, by controlling weight and being physically active.

Source: Diabetes NZ

- Staff reporter, Reuters