Do you love soft drinks? If so, you are not alone. The United States ranks first among countries in soft drink consumption. Millions of people enjoy one or two glasses of cold soft drink each day. But after you read this article, you may want to think twice before drinking.
The latest study published in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) Internal Medicine found that having lots of soft drinks, both sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened, is associated with a higher risk for all-cause mortality.
About the study
In order to examine the association between total, sugar-sweetened, and artificially sweetened soft drink consumption and all-cause mortality, mortality from circulatory diseases and digestive diseases, Amy Mullee, Ph.D., and her colleagues recruited 451,743 participants (mean age, 50.8 years), and followed their health conditions for an average of 16.4 years.
About the results
If we consider the hazard ratio of all-cause mortality, mortality from circulatory diseases and digestive diseases for people who drink less than one glass of total soft drinks per month as 1, the hazard ratio of other groups of people were:
| Less than one glass of total soft drinks per month | At least two glasses of total soft drinks per day | At least two glasses of sugar-sweetened soft drinks per day | At least two glasses of artificially sweetened soft drinks per day |
| All-cause mortality | 1 | 1.17 | 1.08 | 1.26 |
| Mortality from circulatory diseases | 1 | - | - | 1.52 |
| Mortality from digestive diseases | 1 | - | 1.59 | - |
According to the results:
—Greater consumption of total, sugar-sweetened, and artificially sweetened soft drinks was associated with all-cause mortality
—Greater consumption of artificially sweetened soft drinks was associated with deaths from circulatory diseases
—Greater consumption of sugar-sweetened soft drinks was associated with deaths from digestive diseases
"Results of this study appear to support ongoing public health measures to reduce the consumption of soft drinks," the authors wrote.
