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Sugary drinks linked to millions of new diabetes, cardiovascular disease cases worldwide

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By Laura Lara-Castor

Postdoctoral Scholar | PhD Nutritional Epidemiology | Global Population Health | Data Science

The consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages has been identified as a major contributor to the rising global cases of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and diabetes, This trend has been flagged as a significant health concern.

The effects of sugar-sweetened beverages on diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease were found to be especially pronounced in developing countries, emphasizing the need for “urgent, evidence-based interventions to curb consumption globally before even more lives are shortened by their effects,” according to Laura Lara-Castor, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and the study’s lead author.

High consumption of these beverages has been linked to several adverse health outcomes, including liver cancer, obesity, and atrial fibrillation, though the global disease burden by several demographics has yet to be reported on a global scale, as stated by Lara-Castor and her colleagues.

In the study, which analyzed the effects of sugar-sweetened beverages on cardiometabolic diseases in 184 countries from 1990 to 2020, it was observed that the proportion of type 2 diabetes incidence attributable to these drinks rose by 1.3 percentage points, while cardiovascular disease (CVD) incidence slightly decreased by 0.1 percentage points.

It was reported that in 2020 alone, 2.2 million new type 2 diabetes cases and 1.2 million new CVD cases worldwide were attributable to sugar-sweetened beverages, corresponding to increases of 9.8% for type 2 diabetes and 3.1% for CVD. Additionally, approximately 340,000 deaths from type 2 diabetes and CVD were estimated to be linked to these beverages.

Significant impacts were recorded in regions like Latin America and the Caribbean, where 24.4% of new type 2 diabetes cases and 11.3% of new CVD cases in 2020 were attributed to sugar-sweetened beverages. Similar trends were observed in sub-Saharan Africa, where 10.5% of new CVD cases were linked to these drinks.

Colombia, Mexico, and South Africa were identified as the top three countries with the highest burden of type 2 diabetes attributable to sugary drinks among the 30 most populous nations globally.

“Low- and middle-income nations are heavily targeted for the marketing and sale of sugar-sweetened beverages,” Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, PhD, a professor at Tufts University School of Medicine and study co-author, noted, adding that these communities are often less equipped to manage the long-term health consequences.

It was also highlighted that the burdens of type 2 diabetes and CVD attributed to sugary drinks appear higher among younger adults, men, those with higher educational attainment, and urban residents compared to their respective counterparts.

Policy approaches, such as marketing regulations, water sanitation efforts, school food regulation, food labeling, and sugar-density-based taxation, were suggested to address the health impacts of sugar-sweetened beverages. “Much more needs to be done, particularly in countries where consumption is high and the health consequences are severe,” Mozaffarian emphasized, calling for global action to reduce sugar-sweetened beverage consumption.

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