Soft drinks linked with obesity, diabetes

Women who drink higher amounts of sugar-sweetened beverages are at increased risk of developing diabetes and gaining weight, U.S. researchers said Tuesday.

Matthias B. Schulze, formerly of Harvard University, and colleagues studied data from the Nurses' Health Study II survey. For diabetes, they examined data on almost 100,000 women without diabetes and other major chronic disease in 1991 and for weight gain, they analyzed diet habits and body weight of more than 50,000 women.

Women with stable consumption patterns had no difference in weight gain, but after adjusting for lifestyle and dietary factors, weight gain over a four-year period was highest among women who increased sugar-sweetened soft drink consumption from one or fewer drinks per week to one or more drinks per day.

Women who drank one or more sugared soft drinks per day had an 83 percent increased risk for type 2 diabetes compared to those who drank less than one beverage per month.

The study appears in the Aug. 25 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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