Sugary Drinks Responsible for 340,000 Deaths Worldwide, Linked to Diabetes, Heart Disease – Study

• Sugary drinks cause 340,000 global deaths annually, linked to diabetes and heart disease.
• Significant diabetes and heart disease cases in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America tied to sugary drinks.
• Experts urge public health actions to curb sugary drink consumption.

A new study published in Nature Medicine on Monday has revealed that the consumption of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages (SSBs) is responsible for 340,000 deaths globally each year from Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

EKO HOT BLOG reports that the study, which examined the burdens of these diseases across 184 countries, found that sugary drinks contributed to 2.2 million new cases of type 2 diabetes and 1.2 million cases of cardiovascular disease in 2020.

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The impact of sugary drinks was particularly significant in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. In these regions, SSBs were responsible for a large proportion of new diabetes and cardiovascular cases.

Specifically, one in five new type 2 diabetes cases in Sub-Saharan Africa and a quarter in Latin America and the Caribbean were attributed to sugary drink consumption.

In countries like Colombia, sugary drinks were linked to over 48% of new diabetes cases and 23% of cardiovascular disease cases. Similarly, in Mexico, nearly a third of new diabetes cases and 13.5% of cardiovascular cases were caused by sugary drinks. In South Africa, sugary drinks contributed to 27.6% of new diabetes cases and 14.6% of cardiovascular disease cases.

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Researchers from Tufts University’s School of Nutrition Science and Policy, who conducted the study, emphasized the need for urgent global intervention. They called for public health campaigns, sugary drink advertising regulations, and taxes on these beverages to curb consumption.

Dariush Mozaffarian, senior author of the paper, highlighted that low- and middle-income nations are particularly vulnerable, as they are more likely to be targeted by aggressive marketing and are less equipped to handle the long-term health consequences. The study also found that younger adults and men were more likely to suffer the effects of sugary drink consumption.

The authors stress the importance of evidence-based interventions to prevent further lives from being lost to diabetes and heart disease linked to sugary drinks.

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