In the large, ongoing California Teachers Study, which began in 1995, drinking one or more of any type of sugary beverage daily was associated with a 26% higher likelihood of needing a revascularisation procedure, such as angioplasty to open clogged arteries, and a 21% higher likelihood of having a stroke compared to women who rarely or never drank sugary beverages. Sugary beverages in this study were defined as caloric soft drinks, sweetened bottled waters or teas and sugar-added fruit drinks, not 100% fruit juices.
There were also differences based on the type of beverage women consumed. Drinking one or more sugar-added fruit drinks daily was associated with a 42% greater likelihood of having cardiovascular disease. Drinking soft drinks such as sodas daily was associated with a 23% higher risk of cardiovascular disease overall, compared to those who rarely or never drank sugary beverages.
The study included more than 106,000 women, with an average age of 52, who had not been diagnosed with heart disease, stroke or diabetes when they enrolled in the study. The women reported how much and what they drank via a food questionnaire. State-wide inpatient hospitalisation records were used to determine whether a woman had experienced a heart attack, stroke or surgery to open clogged arteries. Women with the highest sugar-sweetened beverage intake were younger, more likely to be current smokers, obese and less likely to eat healthy foods, among other things.
"Although the study is observational and does not prove cause and effect, we hypothesise that sugar may increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases in several ways. It raises glucose levels and insulin concentrations in the blood, which may increase appetite and lead to obesity, a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease," said lead study author Dr Cheryl Anderson, professor and interim chair of family and public health, University of California – San Diego, and chair of the American Heart Association's Nutrition Committee.
"In addition, too much sugar in the blood is associated with oxidative stress and inflammation, insulin resistance, unhealthy cholesterol profiles and type 2 diabetes, conditions that are strongly linked to the development of atherosclerosis, the slow narrowing of the arteries that underlies most cardiovascular disease," said Anderson. Strengths of the study included its large sample size, extensive follow-up time and prospective data collection on sugar-sweetened beverages and lifestyle characteristics.
In addition, the ability to annually link to state-wide hospitalisation and procedure records resulted in accurate endpoints. Limitations of the study included having only one measurement of sugar-sweetened beverage intake. The study was also unable to evaluate consumption of artificially sweetened beverages and/or sweetened hot beverages.
The American Heart Association recommends limiting added sugar to no more than 100 calories a day (6 teaspoons of sugar or 25 grams) for most women, and no more than 150 calories a day (9 teaspoons of sugar or 38 grams) for most men. Sugar-sweetened beverages are the biggest source of added sugars in the American diet; a typical 12-ounce can of regular soda has 130 calories and 8 teaspoons (34 grams) of sugar.
Although diet soda may provide an alternative for some people who are trying to reduce the amount of sugary drinks in their diet, they do include artificial sweeteners such as saccharin, aspartame, sucralose and others. Water remains the most accessible and healthy beverage to drink regularly — water has no sugar, no artificial sweeteners and no calories.
Abstract
Background: Sugar‐sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption has been associated with cardiometabolic risk. However, the association between total and type of SSB intake and incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) end points such as myocardial infarction, stroke, and revascularization is limited.
Methods and Results: We examined the prospective association of baseline SSB consumption with incident CVD in 106 178 women free from CVD and diabetes mellitus in the CTS (California Teachers Study), a cohort of female teachers and administrators, followed since 1995. SSBs were defined as caloric soft drinks, sweetened bottled waters or teas, and fruit drinks, and derived from a self‐administered food frequency questionnaire. CVD end points were based on annual linkage with statewide inpatient hospitalization records. Cox proportional hazards models were used to assess the association between SSB consumption and incident CVD. A total of 8848 CVD incident cases were documented over 20 years of follow‐up. After adjusting for potential confounders, we observed higher hazard ratios (HRs) for CVD (HR, 1.19; 95% CI, 1.06–1.34), revascularization (HR, 1.26; 95% CI, 1.04–1.54]), and stroke (HR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.04–1.41) in women who consumed ≥1 serving per day of SSBs compared with rare/never consumers. We also observed a higher risk of CVD in women who consumed ≥1 serving per day of fruit drinks (HR, 1.42; 95% CI, 1.00–2.01 [P trend=0.021]) and caloric soft drinks (HR, 1.23; 95% CI, 1.05–1.44 [P trend=0.0002]), compared with rare/never consumers.
Conclusions: Consuming ≥1 serving per day of SSB was associated with CVD, revascularization, and stroke. SSB intake might be a modifiable dietary target to reduce risk of CVD among women.
Authors
Lorena S Pacheco, James V Lacey, Maria Elena Martinez, Hector Lemus, Maria Rosario G Araneta, Dorothy D Sears, Gregory A Talavera, Cheryl AM Anderson
[link url="https://www.heart.org/en/news/2020/05/13/even-1-sugary-drink-a-day-could-boost-heart-disease-stroke-risk-in-women"]American Heart Association material[/link]
[link url="https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/JAHA.119.014883"]Journal o the American Heart Association abstract[/link]