According to researchers from Tufts University (USA), carbonated and energy drinks packed with sweeteners stimulate the pleasure centers in our brains, making them seem incredibly tasty.
However, this pleasure comes with a hidden danger. It’s not just that these products typically have minimal nutritional value. Scientists warn that regular consumption of such drinks poses numerous health risks, including cavities, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease.
What Did the Researchers Discover?
The researchers gathered data on beverage consumption from the Global Nutrition Database, which contains results from 450 surveys involving 2.9 million people across 118 countries, as reported by Science Alert.
According to the university team’s analysis, approximately 1.2 million new cases of cardiovascular disease and 2.2 million cases of type 2 diabetes are recorded each year worldwide, directly linked to the consumption of sugary drinks.
The study also revealed that the intake of these beverages leads to around 80,000 deaths from type 2 diabetes and 258,000 deaths from cardiovascular diseases globally each year.
The authors noted that in developed countries, the overall consumption of sugary drinks has recently declined. However, they still pose a significant public health threat in developing nations.
“Sugar-sweetened beverages are actively marketed and sold in low- and middle-income countries. The populations there not only consume these harmful products but are often less equipped to deal with the long-term health consequences,” remarked cardiologist Dariush Mozaffarian, the senior author of the study. Take South Africa, for example, where sugary drinks account for about 28 percent of new diabetes cases and 15 percent of heart disease cases each year.
Co-author and dietitian Laura Lara-Castor emphasized, “We need urgent, data-driven measures to curb the consumption of sugary drinks worldwide before diabetes and heart disease caused by them take even more lives.”
The researchers also reminded us that excessive or frequent consumption of sweetened beverages leads to weight gain and metabolic issues.
The findings of the study were published in the journal Nature Medicine.