Study Links Sugary Beverages to 180,000 Global Deaths, 25,000 in US Alone
A new study has shown a link between the consumption of sugary beverages and the deaths of 180,000 people worldwide every year, with 25,000 of those deaths occurring here in the United States.
The new study was conducted by Gitanjali Singh, a research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health, and was presented this week at the American Heart Association's annual conference.
"We know that sugar-sweetened beverages are linked to obesity, and that a large number of deaths are caused by obesity-related diseases. But until now, nobody had really put these pieces together," Singh said during the conference.
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"I think our findings should really impel policymakers to make effective policies to reduce sugary beverage consumption since it causes a significant number of deaths," Singh added.
As part of the study, researchers spent five years collecting data from national registries and health surveys from around the globe. They then analyzed the data and found that the consumption of a large quantity of excessively sugar-filled beverages could be tied to 133,000 deaths resulting from the onset of diabetes, 44,000 deaths from cardiovascular diseases and 6,000 deaths from cancer in 2010 alone.
This study will sure add to the contentious debate regarding children and the consumption of sugary drinks as a national health problem, as well as to the soda ban that was axed at the last second by a federal judge.
But those representing the beverage industry are criticizing the study and explained the study does not show that consuming those types of drinks is the direct cause of those ailments responsible for causing those deaths.
"It does not show that consuming sugar-sweetened beverages causes chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease or cancer – the real causes of death among the studied subjects," The American Beverage Association released in a statement.
"The researchers make a huge leap when they take beverage intake calculations from around the globe and allege that those beverages are the cause of deaths which the authors themselves acknowledge are due to chronic disease," they added.
