Sugary drinks linked to increased visceral fat, raising risks of heart disease and diabetes

By John Murphy, MDLinx
Published January 11, 2016

Key Takeaways

American adults who drink one (or more) sugary drinks a day have a 27% greater increase in visceral adipose tissue compared with Americans who don’t, according to a new data analysis from the Framingham Heart Study published online January 11, 2016 in the journal Circulation.

Visceral adipose tissue is associated with the development of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Thus, this study adds to the “evidence linking sugar-sweetened beverages with cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes,” said lead study author Caroline S. Fox, MD, MPH, and a former investigator with the Framingham Heart Study of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, in Framingham, MA.

Although the exact biological mechanism is unknown, added sugars—especially fructose—may trigger insulin resistance and increase fat accumulation, which raises the risks for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, said study co-leader Jiantao Ma, MD, PhD, postdoctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health.

In this investigation, researchers enrolled 1,003 participants (mean age 45) from the Framingham Study’s Third Generation cohort and measured their quantity and quality of abdominal adipose tissue at baseline and again 6 years later using CT scans. Subjects also reported their sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) and diet soda intake on a valid food frequency questionnaire.

Over a 6-year follow-up period—and after adjusting for participants’ age, gender, physical activity, body mass index, and other factors—visceral adipose tissue volume increased by:

  • 658 cm3 for non-drinkers
  • 649 cm3 for occasional drinkers (SSBs once a month or less than once a week)
  • 707 cm3 for frequent drinkers (once a week or less than once a day)
  • 852 cm3 for those who drank at least 1 beverage daily

The researchers concluded that drinking sugar-sweetened beverages led to an increase in visceral adipose tissue. In contrast, they observed no such association with drinking diet soda.

“Our message to consumers is to follow the current dietary guidelines and to be mindful of how much sugar-sweetened beverages they drink,” Dr. Fox said. “To policy makers, this study adds another piece of evidence to the growing body of research suggesting sugar-sweetened beverages may be harmful to our health.”

The researchers concluded that this study supports current dietary recommendations that limiting SSB consumption may help prevent cardiometabolic diseases; however, the researchers did not report whether increased consumption of SSBs also coincided with cardiovascular events or the incidence of type 2 diabetes in subjects.

Sugar-sweetened beverages are the largest contributor of added sugar intake in the United States. In 2001 to 2004, the usual intake of added sugars for Americans was 22.2 teaspoons per day, or an extra 355 calories. The American Heart Association recommends a limit of 100 calories per day of added sugars for most women and 150 calories per day for most men.

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