The raison d'etre of this website is to provide you with hard scientific information which may help you make informed decisions in your quest for health (so far I have blogged concise summaries of over 1,500 scientific studies and have had three books published).

My research is mainly focused on the effects of cholesterol, saturated fat and statin drugs on health. If you know anyone who is worried about their cholesterol levels and heart disease, or has been told to take statin drugs you could send them a link to this website, and to my statin or cholesterol or heart disease books.

David Evans

Independent Health Researcher

Thursday, 1 March 2012

Cola and other soft drinks increase the risk of diabetes by 24%

This study was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine 2008 Jul 28;168(14):1487-92

Study title and authors:
Sugar-sweetened beverages and incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus in African American women.
Palmer JR, Boggs DA, Krishnan S, Hu FB, Singer M, Rosenberg L.
Slone Epidemiology Center, BostonUniversity, Boston, MA 02215, USA. jpalmer@slone.bu.edu

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18663160

The objective of the study was to examine the association between consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and incidence of type 2 diabetes in African American women. The analyses included 43,960 women, with 338,884 person-years of follow-up, who gave dietary information and were free from diabetes at the start of the study. (One serving was defined as a 12-oz bottle or can).

The study found:
(a) Those women that drank two or more servings a day of orange or grapefruit juice had an 11% increased risk of type II diabetes compared to those women who drank less than one serving a month of orange or grapefruit juice.
(b) Those women that drank two or more servings a day of sugar-sweetened soft drinks had a 24% increased risk of type II diabetes compared to those women who drank less than one serving a month of sugar-sweetened soft drinks.
(c) Those women that drank two or more servings a day of sweetened fruit drinks had a 31% increased risk of type II diabetes compared to those women who drank less than one serving a month of sweetened fruit drinks.

This study shows that regular consumption of sugar-sweetened soft drinks and fruit drinks is associated with an increased risk of type II diabetes.