Written by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS. In a 10-year follow-up study of 32,575 healthy women and 35,884 healthy men, those with the highest intake per day of sweetened beverages (2 servings) had a 19 % risk of all types of stroke and a 22 % risk of a type of stroke called a cerebral infarction.
In a 2014 study (1), researchers followed 32,575 women between the ages of 49 to 83 and 35,884 men between the ages of 45 and 79 initially without cardiovascular disease, cancer, or diabetes. The consumption of sweetened beverages was assessed using a food-frequency questionnaire (2) and included sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened soft drinks and juice drinks. The researchers defined sweetened beverage consumption with the question ‘‘How many soft drinks or sweetened juice drinks do you drink per day or per week?’’ In addition, subjects reported their average consumption of 96 foods and beverages during the past year.
Over an average follow-up of 10.3 years, compared to the lowest intakes of sweetened beverages per day (less than 0.5 servings, 200 milliliters of liquid per serving), those with the highest intakes per day (> 2 servings) had a 19% increased risk of all types of stroke (p < 0.01) and a 22% increased risk for a type of stroke called cerebral infarction (p < 0.01).
When suggesting how sugar-sweetened beverage consumption may increase stroke risk, the researchers pointed to a “positive association” between sweetened beverage consumption and metabolic syndrome (3) as well as increased levels of LDL cholesterol, blood sugar, and an inflammatory protein called high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (4). Finally, researchers cited the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study where “sweetened beverage consumption was positively associated with plasma triglycerides, C-reactive protein, IL-6…and inversely associated with HDL cholesterol, lipoprotein(a), and leptin (5).”
For the researchers, “These findings suggest that sweetened beverage consumption is positively associated with the risk of stroke.” They did conclude that “This finding warrants confirmation by other large studies” due to some weaknesses in their study design, specifically that their study was an observational study, leaving them unable to rule out “the possibility of residual confounding due to unmeasured or imprecise measurement of other risk factors for stroke.” In addition, the self-administered questionnaire used to assess sugar-sweetened beverage consumption was measured only once which “will inevitably lead to some measurement error in the assessment of sweetened beverage consumption.”
Source: Larsson, Susanna C., Agneta Åkesson, and Alicja Wolk. “Sweetened beverage consumption is associated with increased risk of stroke in women and men.” The Journal of nutrition 144.6 (2014): 856-860.
© 2014 American Society for Nutrition
Posted March 24, 2015.
References:
- Larsson SC. Sweetened beverage consumption is associated with increased risk of stroke in women and men. J Nutr. 2014 Jun;144(6):856-60. doi: 10.3945/jn.114.190546. Epub 2014 Apr 9.
- Messerer M, Johansson SE,Wolk A. The validity of questionnaire-based micronutrient intake estimates is increased by including dietary supplement use in Swedish men. J Nutr. 2004;134:1800–5
- Malik VS, Popkin BM, Bray GA, Despres JP, Willett WC, Hu FB. Sugar sweetened beverages and risk of metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes: a meta-analysis. Diabetes Care. 2010;33:2477–83
- Aeberli I, Gerber PA, Hochuli M, Kohler S, Haile SR, Gouni-Berthold I, Berthold HK, Spinas GA, Berneis K. Low to moderate sugar-sweetened beverage consumption impairs glucose and lipid metabolism and promotes inflammation in healthy young men: a randomized controlled trial. Am J Clin Nutr. 2011;94:479–85
- de Koning L, Malik VS, Kellogg MD, Rimm EB, Willett WC, Hu FB. Sweetened beverage consumption, incident coronary heart disease, and biomarkers of risk in men. Circulation. 2012;125:1735–1741, S1731
