Drinking a Can of Sugary Soda Every Day Can Boost a Person's Risk For Prediabetes, Study Finds (upi.com) 143
An anonymous reader quotes a report from UPI: Drinking a can of sugary soda every day can dramatically heighten a person's risk of developing prediabetes, a "warning sign" condition that precedes full-blown type 2 diabetes, a new study reports. A person who drinks a daily can of sugar-sweetened beverage has a 46 percent increased risk of developing prediabetes, said senior researcher Nicola McKeown, a scientist with the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston. For this study, McKeown and her colleagues analyzed 14 years of data on nearly 1,700 middle-aged adults. The information was obtained from the Framingham Heart Study, a federally funded program that has monitored multiple generations for lifestyle and clinical characteristics that contribute to heart disease. Participants did not have diabetes or prediabetes when they entered the study. They self-reported their consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and diet sodas. The research team found those who drank the highest amounts of sugar-sweetened beverages -- six 12-ounce servings a week, on average -- had a 46 percent higher risk of prediabetes, if researchers didn't weigh other factors. Authors of the new study noted that prediabetes risk did decline when they included factors such as other dietary sources of sugar and how much body fat a person had. But it didn't fall much. The increased risk associated with sugary drinks still amounted to about 27 percent, McKeown said. Because the study was observational, it does not establish a direct cause-and-effect link between sugary drinks and prediabetes, McKeown said.
I hope it helps to say (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Smoking causes emphysema, lung cancer, and may complicate pregnancies.
Big deal. Breathing causes death -- 100% of all dead people were habitual breathers.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: Thought I'd something more to say (Score:2)
Ticking away the moments
That make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours
In an off-hand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground
In your home town
Waiting for someone or something
To show you the way
Tired of lying in the sunshine
Staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long
And there is time to kill today
And then one day you find
Ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run
You missed the starting gun
So you run and you run
To catch up with the sun
But it's sinking, racing around
To come
Re:I hope it helps to say (Score:4, Funny)
On a more serious note: (Score:2)
In the run up to being diagnosed, I felt completely exhausted, and an absolute craving for sugar. This was during the pre-diabetes state. The most likely explanation is that I was developing insulin resistance, and so was unable to digest the sugar from the Mars bars and Coca-Cola. This is common in insulin resistant type 2 diabetes (the other kind is where you don't produce enough insuli
Re: (Score:2)
It has long been claimed in the health-enthusiast press that excessive sugar consumption causes excessive production of insulin, which overshoots the body's need for insulin. The leftover insulin is damaging by itself, and wears out the mechanisms which work with insulin to transform sugar - hence insulin resistance. Insulin resistance causes the body to produce even more insulin to compensate, in a destructive positive feedback loop. Eventually, this exhausts the ability of the body to produce insulin, and
Re: (Score:2)
When your blood sugar level is high, the aqueous humour in your eyes gets filled with sugar, which alters its refractive index and can make it opaque. The result is that your eye muscles continuously try to focus your eyes but are unable to do so, and its very tiring.
What makes you think I cannot tell cause from effect? Are you suggesting that my pre-diabetes condition was brought about by high sugar intake? Few people would have a lower sugar intake than be before
Re: (Score:2)
That's not technically true. If you use a minute to decide to quit smoking, for example, or quit the sugary sodas, and it adds 10 years to your life, that minute has brought you farther from death.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
That's not technically true.
Whenever a friend complains about the ailments of life, I quickly remind them that death comes ever closer every minute. There are better things to do than complain about life.
Re: (Score:2)
And it's terminal, too.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I wish it was obvious (Score:5, Insightful)
Unfortunately, it is not obvious to the majority of Americans. Most still believe the old wives tale that fat makes you fat, and sugar is healthy in moderation. Just as bad are those that think that HFCS is bad, but sugar is OK, because sugar is natural. There's also the naturalists, that shun HFCS and sugar, but are fine with honey, agave nectar, and fruit juices. The truth: it's all bad.
I myself drank a can of pop a day eight years ago. Then, after watching Dr. Lustig's Sugar: The Bitter Truth [youtube.com] on YouTube, someone finally explained to me the science, and I understood. But, I must admit, I still like my soda. I'm down to three cans a week, though I wish I had more self control to make it only one a week.
Yes, we all die. But how do you want to get there, and how soon?
Re: (Score:1)
It's not really the sugar that's going to kill you.
It's just that there isn't a way to eat a reasonable diet that includes the regular consumption of sugar added foods.A soda a day adds 200kcal That's a lot and it adds up. Worse, sugar consumption tends to lead to more sugar consumption. You're conditioned to enjoy it.
I lost over 140 lbs through diet and excersize and I've kept it off. When you plan your meals and do the math, you quickly find that sugar added and carb laden foods simply do not belong in a
Re: (Score:2)
Congratulations on losing 140 lbs, that is a truly astonishing amount of weight loss!
I also had great results by cutting off sugar and starchy food. Nothing as dramatic, but I second that they don't belong in a healthy diet.
Re: I wish it was obvious (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Awesome! Cereal Killers 2 was great and showed the public just how bad 'no-net-fiber carbs' are a terribly-poor source of energy versus ketones.
Humans are supposed to be eating more fats than sugar... way more.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
More specifically, calories are stored as fat in adipose tissue, and as glycogen in muscle and liver tissue. The total amount stored is as simple as calories in - calories out as dictated by thermodynamics. But where most people get confused is that calories burned by exercise are only a small portion of total calories burned. The rest are burned by the body simply doing everything it needs to do to stay alive. This number, however, is highly variable in activity and efficiency, differing from person to per
Re: (Score:2)
So, calories are unrelated to weight? I hear the opposite here and elsewhere all the time. And there are hundreds of studies that support that.
The issue is the causality. Gary Taubes researched the history of the science on this, going back pre-war, and how missteps were made along the way.
Today we all know about the energy balance, that people get fat because they eat too much and exercise too little.
But Taubes points out that this "energy balance" model, albeit thermodynamically correct, doesn't explain anything.
"Alcoholism is caused by drinking too much."
"Bill Gates is rich because he received more money than he spent."
"Children grow up because
Re: (Score:2)
What it boils down to is that, the body processes carbs in a very different way to how it processes sugars.
Ah, that should read: a very different way to how it processes fats
Re: (Score:1)
It's not that hard and hasn't changed much since I was born (early 70s). Eat moderate amounts of lean meat, veges, fruit and less-processed carbs, save the sugary/salty/fatty stuff for special occasions (translation: a few times a year, not a few times a week), and get off your arse and exercise regularly. It won't guarantee perfect health or longevity - nothing can do that - but if you do it consistently it will definitely bias your trajectory strongly in that direction.
All of the wild swinging between t
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, we all die. But how do you want to get there, and how soon?
And you'll never see the truck that kills you tomorrow. That's the best bit. Seriously - obsessing too much about your health and lifespan is - not healthy.
Re:I wish it was obvious (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3)
Soda is fucking terrible for you. That's why I always make sure to dilute it with an equal part of rum or whiskey.
And in the blue corner we have a pair of kidneys! And in the red corner we have a liver! This is going to be a great contest folks! Let's get ready to RUUUUUBMLE!
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Lustig is a polemecist with an axe to grind and books to sell, who cherry-picks his data shamelessly. I wouldn't trust him any farther than you can throw him.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
I'm glad you mentioned Dr. Lustig's video detailing his and his team's work.
However, you were wrong/mistaken on one of your points –HFCS is bad for you... it's bad for everyone **except, and Dr. Lustig said this, for Ironman-style athletes.
HFCS is both a sucrose and a fructose molecule, combined, therefore it creates a ton of bad co-enzymes in the liver when being processed. Apparently, athletes on that level have a more-efficient liver, yet most Ironmen would never eat HFCS.
America (and Canada, I bel
Re: (Score:1)
And drinking beverages with artificial sweeteners has been proven to cause diabetes in rats.
Maybe it will shake out and they will quit inferring causality and actually research the mechanism and learn exactly what is needed to keep the endocrine system in balance.
Re: I wish it was obvious (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Now that's easy to prove false. I had carrots at dinner and I have not died. Now, I will eventually die, but you said, "has eventually died". This is why your fifth grade teacher was so insistent upon you learning grammar. Because bad grammar leads to sloppy thinking, which leads to a bigoted con-man with hair that looks like cotton candy spun from piss getting elected president.
Re: (Score:2)
I noted several slices of carrot in my jirou chaofan last night. Yet I'm still here.
Lots of sugar in a soda (Score:5, Informative)
Show a standard sugar packet to someone drinking a soda, and ask them how many packets would it take to equal the sugar in their soda. They will usually guess one or two. It is actually about twelve.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
The big reason for this is usually that something in the soda that is there for flavor, also is bitter. So sugar is added until it is sweet. The net effect usually is, there's way too much sugar for its level of sweetness.
I use soda exclusively as a mixer for alcohol. I probably average about two cans a week- it's been weeks since I had any, but I can recall a week where I had whiskey-cokes several times, so that's my guess.
Re: (Score:2)
I use soda exclusively as a mixer for alcohol. I probably average about two cans a week- it's been weeks since I had any, but I can recall a week where I had whiskey-cokes several times, so that's my guess.
I've taken to Zevia root beer, which IMO is their only really good flavor. Ironically, it's ginger-based, but their ginger beer is kind of crap. Great mixer with various whiskeys or similar.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Stevia has its uses, but doesn't work as a universal replacement for sugar.
I find it works best when it's mixed with erythitol or howtfever you spell that, I've been using it for months and still can't manage it reliably. Someone sells a product based on this idea as well, which I think is pretty good. Anyway, the root beer is the only flavor of Zevia which doesn't taste like a leaf.
Re: (Score:3)
The big reason for this is usually that something in the soda that is there for flavor, also is bitter. So sugar is added until it is sweet.
Apart from bitter lemon, tonic water, birch beer and energy drinks containing taurine, i can't say I am familiar with any bitter sodas. Lots of them are highly acidic, but not bitter, which is a very distinct flavor from acidic.
Coca-Cola used to be bitter before it was carbonated and sugared, and actually contained coca extract, but that's a long time ago. Perhaps that's what you're thinking of?
Re: (Score:3)
Apart from bitter lemon, tonic water, birch beer and energy drinks containing taurine, i can't say I am familiar with any bitter sodas. Lots of them are highly acidic, but not bitter, which is a very distinct flavor from acidic.
Coca-Cola used to be bitter before it was carbonated and sugared, and actually contained coca extract, but that's a long time ago. Perhaps that's what you're thinking of?
Caffeine [wikipedia.org] is quite bitter in raw form. Any soda that it is added to needs extra sugar to overcome the bitterness imparted by the caffeine.
Yaz
Re: (Score:3)
Caffeine [wikipedia.org] is quite bitter in raw form. Any soda that it is added to needs extra sugar to overcome the bitterness imparted by the caffeine.
The tiny amounts of caffeine aren't going to make the entire drink bitter. We drink unsweetened iced coffee without feeling that it's bitter (unless the cheap bastards have used bitter or overroasted beans).
Re: (Score:2)
It's not that it makes the beverage bitter -- it's that it makes it less sweet. The manufacturers add extra sugar to overcome the reduced sweetness in order to get the taste profile back to where they want it to be.
Yaz
Well no shit Sherlock! (Score:3)
Imagine that. Drinking pure sugar can raise the risk of pre-diabetes.
Re: (Score:2)
Imagine that. Drinking pure sugar can raise the risk of pre-diabetes.
That's not what the study says. It only points out a correlation for a subset of the population.
There may well be an external cause for both a craving for sugar and a disposition for pre-diabetes. Or the causation might even go the other way, where craving for sugar is one of the first symptoms.
Jumping to conclusions is always bad, and especially when it seems so obvious.
I'm fat, I know I'm fat (Score:2)
I've got this 32 oz coffee mug I carry around with me, everyone who knows me knows it. Up until 11 it's full of coffee, after 11 it's full of water. But I gotta say, I always have an after lunch meeting of some sort or another and they always have either the dew or the doc, doc takes precedence.
Re: (Score:2)
But it didn't fall much (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
survival of the fittest (Score:2)
the free rein of food companies over the last 50 years has lead to a very dire situation where it's literally becoming a scenario of the survival of the fittest. the population is going to decimated because of the amount of sugar (especially fructose) being shoved into every food and plenty of them will die before having offspring. regardless of who's to blame, Darwin always wins.
Really? (Score:4)
In other news, water is wet.
I'm not concerned (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
I drink on the average, 2 cans of cola per day and have done so for decades. My blood sugar is low and my weight is normal. My lipid panel is normal and I've actually lost 10 pounds in the last couple of months.
I feel great. I cycle, hike and snow ski among other things (but not a lot).
I simply limit my food intake and minimize fats.
Re: (Score:3)
I know exactly how much exercise is required to allow me to eat anything I want and stay at an appropriate weight: high school football. About 14 hours a week of running around with pads, helmet, etc., plus four hours a week of weights. I don't have an extra 18 hours a week as an adult.
Re: (Score:2)
Obvious (Score:2)
What about a 12oz glass of good ol' OJ? (Score:3)
Will that also cause pre-die-a-beetus?
Story paid by those that want to tax (Score:1)
Who cares,we are not going to live that long (Score:3)
Most of us will die in the nuclear war and its aftermath
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, we all know that Vladimir won't have to rattle sabres any longer to get what he wants.
Re: (Score:2)
The problem is that we don't know what Vladimir wants, or if he gets what he wants, will he want more?
Does he just want a warm water port? Does he want all the land that used to be the USSR? Does he want totalitarianism? Does he want the whole world?
A Can of Sugary Soda Every Day Boost Risk (Score:1)
A risk is bad and
bad is negative, but
two negatives equals a positive,
so all I need to do is to drink 'Two' Cans of Sugary Soda Every Day, right?
Re: (Score:2)
Words have meanings? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Semi-literates are at their most entertaining when they're complaining about words. Keep up the good work.
Pre-diabetes? (Score:2)
What about pre-pre-diabetes? or pre-pre-pre-diabetes? Being born can get you that one.
just more ways to get a Pre-existing condition (Score:2)
just more ways to get a Pre-existing condition. But the up side is jails / prisons systems do not have them and they do a lot more then the ER does.
Beer is good for you maybe trump can lower the dri (Score:3)
Beer is good for you maybe trump can lower the drinking age. So teens drink less pop.
I'm sorry, is this news? (Score:1)
We worry too much (Score:2)
In other news, mass buying of Christmas Trees (Score:3)
.. causes Christmas to arrive.
Another irrelevant study (Score:2)
Come on. This is supposed to be a nerds' site. You should know that this kind of studies are useless because there is no way to prove causation. Perhaps people who like soda are more prone to diabetes in the first place. Perhaps (oh! sudden insight) they don't only drink soda but also overeat and don't move their sorry asses, like, ever.
When somebody makes a study of a thousand vegetarians that run 5K every day, and take half and force them to drink a glass of soda every day for ten years, and then compare
Re: (Score:2)
You should know that this kind of studies are useless because there is no way to prove causation.
The thing is, if you're being an idiot about it (as many of the correlation != causation parroters here do) you can never prove causation. The reason being is you have to prove the non-existence of some underlying casuative effect. And it is of course impossible to prove a negative.
I mean how do you know that applying a force to an object causes it to move? I claim that it doesn't. You see it's actually unicorns
Coffee FTW (Score:2)
That's exactly why I drink more coffee now than soda, I normally use a tablespoon of sugar for a 12 oz cup of coffee, compare that to a coke or pepsi and you've cut your sugar consumption by 3/4.
Re: (Score:2)
If you drink good coffee you can leave the sugar out entirely!
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed so, I'm just still waning myself off sugar so a little bit goes a long way.
A new rhyme (Score:2)
Well you don't say. (Score:2)
Captain Obvious (Score:2)
No, really? Overloading your system with sugar is bad for you??? Who knew???
Seriously, watch the documentary "Sugar Coated" on Netflix. Excellent and sobering.
I wouldn't know... (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
I drink water with a little bit of lemon juice.
Sometimes I drink carbonated mineral water (similar to soda only without sugar, sweeteners and artificial flavoring ;-) )
I also drink "fake coffee" - made from roasted grains. It is a little bit bitter and I drink it with a bit of milk.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
By "fake sugars" are you including all non-sugar sweeteners? Stuff like saccharine isn't really meant to be digested, and it's so intensely sweet that only tiny amounts are used.
For a practical solution, you might try taking flavored seltzer and adding just enough sugar (pre-dissolved in water to prevent excessive bubbling) so that the result is tolerable. If you can reduce your sugar intake in this manner, you're a little better off.
Another alternative is V-8 (which is more expensive than soda) and its gen
Re: (Score:2)
In that case I have some bad news for you... [wikipedia.org]
But seriously, get used to drinking water and/or tea.
Re: (Score:2)
The best treatment is a change of diet, but many people literally rather die than eat a sprig of broccoli.
Re: (Score:2)