No Gut, but Sugary Drinks Can Still Lead to Diabetes

Oct. 25, 2010— -- Even if it doesn't make you fat, overloading on sugary drinks can still cause metabolic problems like diabetes, researchers say.

People who drank one or two sugar-sweetened beverages a day, like soda or vitamin water, had a 26 percent increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, compared with those who barely drank any, according to Harvard's Vasanti Malik and colleagues.

"Part of sugar-sweetened beverages' contribution to diabetes is via obesity, but there are other pathways as well," Malik told MedPage Today. They reported their findings in the journal Diabetes Care.

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Malik and colleagues said the findings provide further evidence that patients should replace sugary drinks with healthier alternatives like water in order to reduce their risk of both obesity and chronic diseases.

Dr. Larry Cantley of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., who wasn't involved in the study, told MedPage Today that the findings are "very important."

"A lot of decisions [to avoid junk food] have been guided by weight," he said. "We now have outcomes data to say that you can actually have a higher risk of diabetes by making these kinds of choices."

High intake of sugar-sweetened beverages has long been associated with weight gain and an increased risk of obesity. That risk has only grown as the global consumption of these drinks increases.

While it's been thought that the drinks can lead to ill health effects directly through weight gain, science has been revealing that they may have other, more direct disease-generating mechanisms.

For instance, they've been shown to raise blood sugar and insulin levels rapidly and dramatically, potentially contributing to glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, beta-cell dysfunction, and inflammation.

Recent studies have also shown that fructose, the main sweetener in these drinks, may be linked to high blood pressure as well as increased production of blood fats such as triglycerides and bad LDL cholesterol.