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Science

Drinking More Than 2 Sodas Per Day Can Increase Your Risk of Dying, Study Finds (abc4.com) 118

Posted by msmash from the we-are-all-done dept.
According to a new study, those who drink more than two glasses of soda or any soft drink per day have a high risk of dying. From a report: Experts studied more than 450,000 people from 10 European countries for up to 19 years and found that those who had more than two glasses of soda per day had a higher risk of dying than people who drank less than one glass per month. The study, published Tuesday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, stated that men or women who drank two or more glasses a day of sugar-sweetened soft drinks had a higher risk of dying from digestive disorders, while those who drank the same amount of diet drinks had higher risks of dying from cardiovascular disease. The findings note that none of the subjects had cancer, diabetes, heart disease or stroke prior to the study.
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Drinking More Than 2 Sodas Per Day Can Increase Your Risk of Dying, Study Finds More

Drinking More Than 2 Sodas Per Day Can Increase Your Risk of Dying, Study Finds

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  • Risk of dying? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Mononymous ( 6156676 ) on Friday September 06, 2019 @01:55PM (#59166334)

    It's 100%, for everybody, no matter what we do.

    • Re:Risk of dying? (Score:5, Funny)

      by 110010001000 ( 697113 ) on Friday September 06, 2019 @01:57PM (#59166338) Homepage Journal

      You keep believing that buddy! I am never going to d

    • It's 100%, for everybody, no matter what we do.

      Life is a dangerous activity and will eventually lead to death.

      Nobody has survived it yet.

      • JESUS!

        Oh, wait... Yeah he died too.

      • Life is a dangerous activity and will eventually lead to death.

        Nobody has survived it yet.

        I have.

        So far, the number of times I've dies is exactly zero.

        • So far, the number of times I've dies is exactly zero.

          Bad news for you . . . you're looking at it wrong.

          Today is the last day of your life, so far.

          See you tomorrow!

          Maybe.

        • Life is a dangerous activity and will eventually lead to death.

          Nobody has survived it yet.

          I have.

          So far, the number of times I've dies is exactly zero.

          Ha! Depends on the definition of death-you may have died one night, then recovered! Also, in France the orgasm is known as "the little death". By that definition, I have died at least a few times in junior high...Just for fun, let's re-title the story: "For some people, drinking more than two sodas per day can increase their risk of truly living". Me, I prefer coffee - and I ain't giving it up, no matter what the research says! Irrational, but only for coffee. And beer.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

      Your probability of dying is 100%. Risk, in statistical terms, is really a kind of rate: probability of an event / time.

      So your probability of dying is the definite integral of your risk of dying, with respect to time, from zero to infinity.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Dunbal ( 464142 ) *
      Breathing increases risk of dying. Having studied many breathers and non breathers I can conclude that none of the non breathers die, and 100% of the breathers eventually die. Isn't science wonderful?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Dunbal ( 464142 ) *
        Oh I forgot - not only that but there is a very strong correlation between number of breaths taken and death. The more you have breathed, the more likely you are to die. This should be published quickly!

        • Oh I forgot - not only that but there is a very strong correlation between number of breaths taken and death. The more you have breathed, the more likely you are to die. This should be published quickly!

          Locally true, but in places without neonatal care the curve might be a bit different.

          Even locally, people who have breathed one time are more likely to die than people who have breathed continuously for a few years. Definitely non-linear.

      • I only breathe through my mouth.

      • Breathing increases risk of dying. Having studied many breathers and non breathers I can conclude that none of the non breathers die, and 100% of the breathers eventually die. Isn't science wonderful?

        Try your study in an emergency room. Lots of the non-breathers die. You simply waited too long to do the test on them, and got false results.

        Also, in other parts of the hospital there are a bunch of breathers that will never die, because they too are already dead.

        Science is wonderful, but you're not a wonderful scientist.

    • “On a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.”

      Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club

    • It's 100%, for everybody, no matter what we do.

      Until it happens to you, how can you be so sure?

  • So, if you drink a Pepsi and a Coke in the same day, it increases your chances of dying???

  • Effect on the short term memory of editors? (Score:5, Funny)

    by DeBaas ( 470886 ) on Friday September 06, 2019 @02:00PM (#59166356) Homepage

    Maybe it effects the short term memory of editors. At least I don't drink two sodas a day and can remember this post from Wednesday [slashdot.org]

  • that 100% of people who consume dihydrogen-monoxide will die.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Zumbs ( 1241138 )
      I know quite a number of people who are addicted to dihydrogen-monoxide who are still alive, thank you very much. Your statistic is clearly bogus!

  • Some do, some don't (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jimbrooking ( 1909170 ) on Friday September 06, 2019 @02:02PM (#59166366)
    Been drinking 2 liters of Diet Pepsi a day for 30+ years. Turned 80 in July. Bring it on! Oh wait, maybe red wine is an antidote!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Bigbutt ( 65939 )

      Yea, I'm in the same ocean (different boat; I drink Diet Coke :) ) since 89 and I'm 62. I essentially don't drink alcohol either and never smoked. I've had a beer once a year or less and hard alcohol even less often. No wine, red or white. I don't find any of them palatable as they taste like medicine or worse.

      [John]

      • ".. they taste like medicine or worse."

        Incidentally what I thought when I tasted diet coke.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Bigbutt ( 65939 )

          I get it. We all have our tastes or there wouldn't be so many beer (and more) drinkers. Personally I grew up in a house where alcohol and caffeine was avoided (Mormon) and never got into the peer influenced drinking or smoking cliques so I never got the habit. After being in "the world" a bit, I tried coffee and *blah*. A friend had me try some Starbucks thing and it was still not something I'd want to drink. Heck, even coffee flavored candies aren't appreciated :) In my 40's I had some Ouzo when I was in

        • Totally agree!
    • Netcraft confirms it, jimbrooking is... er never mind

    • Probability and correlations doesn't mean it will happen to you. Think George Burns who always had a Cigar, and lived to be a hundred.

      This doesn't mean smoking cigars are healthy, it is just that George Burns never got the ill effect from smoking. The same thing as with people who drink soda. It isn't healthy, it will increase your chances of getting some sort of illness, however it is just that increasing chances, not saying you will.

      Also there may be other activities that you do that may counteract its i

      • Diet soda from the article, says it increases your risk of cardiovascular health.

        I have a suspicion that someone is confused about effects and causes.

        I suspect that people who drink diet sodas tend to be rather sedentary and overweight, and thus are rather more likely to die younger. I, on the other hand, mass 75kg at 188cm height, and drink diet soda. And walk miles per day. I don't think the diet sodas are going to kill me, unless a truck full of them runs me down in the grocery store parking lot....

        • Diet soda from the article, says it increases your risk of cardiovascular health.

          I have a suspicion that someone is confused about effects and causes.

          I suspect that people who drink diet sodas tend to be rather sedentary and overweight, and thus are rather more likely to die younger. I, on the other hand, mass 75kg at 188cm height, and drink diet soda. And walk miles per day. I don't think the diet sodas are going to kill me, unless a truck full of them runs me down in the grocery store parking lot....

          What you should generally already know since this was a high quality scientific study is that they already accounted for those factors, and the difference published is not raw data but the actual difference within the margin of error.

          What you said applies to raw, uncorrelated data, not to scientific studies.

    • Been drinking 2 liters of Diet Pepsi a day for 30+ years. Turned 80 in July. Bring it on! Oh wait, maybe red wine is an antidote!

      One can safely bet there are several people in the study group who can say the same. Single data points are all very fun to relate but make a lousy sample group.

      • Been drinking 2 liters of Diet Pepsi a day for 30+ years. Turned 80 in July. Bring it on! Oh wait, maybe red wine is an antidote!

        One can safely bet there are several people in the study group who can say the same. Single data points are all very fun to relate but make a lousy sample group.

        Yeah, especially when the largest number of subjects was from France!

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by jwhyche ( 6192 )

      Bacon will kill you... Wait, bacon is good for you now? I'm not sure which side of the road bacon is on. Now its soft drinks. Everything out there will kill you if given the chance. So if we cut out all the things we do that make our lives enjoyable, is our lives worth living?

      • Bacon is really bad for you, unless you made it at home using a 200 year old recipe.

        There is really no equivocation in the studies about that. Modern processed meats are really unhealthy, but traditionally processed meats are fine.

        Other than fish, it isn't even legal to process and sell meats with the traditional recipes.

        • Traditional methods of processing meat include heavy salting and smoking. Both are unhealthy.compared to fresh meat cooked at a moderate temperature, but healthy compared to eating rancid meat

          • Right, this hints at the fact that salt consumption isn't a very important health consideration for most people.

            You just presume that salt must be categorically bad without any cause.

            Even most people with high blood pressure, eating salt, even excess salt, only causes a 2 or 3 point rise in BP, an amount of change that is well-studied and known not to be correlated with more negative health outcomes. Only larger changes will effect health outcomes, outside of the small percentage of the population who are r

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Mitreya ( 579078 )

      Been drinking 2 liters of Diet Pepsi a day for 30+ years. Turned 80 in July. Bring it on!

      Unfortunately, people who were drinking diet pepsi like you and already died cannot report their data points to go with yours.
      Self-selecting bias in action!

  • Hmm ... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Friday September 06, 2019 @02:14PM (#59166418)

    Neither the study or any of the articles clearly state how much sooner you're predicted to die, but this article [livescience.com] said:

    People who consumed two or more glasses of soda per day — either regular or diet — were 17% more likely to die during the nearly two-decade study, compared with people who consumed less than one glass of soda per month,

    Among those who reported consuming at least two soft drinks a day, 11% died during the study period, compared with 9% of those who reported consuming fewer than one soft drink per month.

    So... 11% vs. 9% died over 20 years.

    One article [reason.com] mentioned this (emphasis mine):

    People who consumed two or more per day were slightly more likely than those who abstained from all soda to die from diseases related to circulatory problems. (Consuming one or more sugar-sweetened soda per day, meanwhile, was associated with increase risk of dying from liver, appendix, pancreas, and intestinal diseases.) Whether these circulatory problems are directly related to diet soda is unknown—and there are good reasons to suspect they are not.

    "Researchers cautioned that elevated soft-drink consumption may be a marker for an overall unhealthy lifestyle," the Post points out. That is, people who consume sodas daily may also be more likely to eat out at restaurants, consume processed snacks, or engage in other dietary habits that up their disease risk.

    We recognize that a possible explanation for the positive associations found for artificially sweetened soft drinks is that participants who were already at greater health risk (those who were overweight or obese; those with prediabetes) may have switched to artificially sweetened soft drinks to manage their calorie and sugar intake.

  • Specifically it was 2 cups, aka 16floz or more a day which is the size of a single bottle.

  • So, it's a group of 452 thousand people, 71% of which are women (which is not a representative sample of the population), and the average age being 50.

    What else is in sodas? Hmmm... Caffeine? What's known to cause heart problems? Stimulants... Like Caffeine.

    But yet, this aspect seems to have been totally ignored all together by the study. Not to mention that 14 glasses (which was undefined as a volume) a week of soda is not something a healthy person drinks, and the study admitted that the heavy soda drinke

    • What else is in sodas? Hmmm... Caffeine? What's known to cause heart problems? Stimulants... Like Caffeine.

      There's more caffeine in your average coffee compared to your average soda and drinking up to four cups of coffee a day is linked to increased lifespan and better cardiac health. If caffeine were to blame you'd be seeing coffee drinkers living shorter lives rather than longer lives.

      • Um, no it's not, that's yet another BS study.

        Additionally, you said coffee, that's not caffeine. Coffee contains caffeine, but it's not the same thing.

        • Uh, for decades with no studies at all people were indoctrinated in the assumption that coffee must be bad. For some reason that nobody really knew, but they all blamed the caffeine. Without citation.

          And then they finally started doing studies, and first they thought it caused ulcers. Then they realized, no, it causes existing ulcers to hurt more, but doesn't cause them at all. Then they spent some time just saying "we don't know." Then people finally did studies to see if it is good for you, and it provide

          • Stimulants are bad for your heart. I don't know what else to tell you. Ask any doctor.

            • Any doctor who agrees with a statement that broad is an idiot, and sure as fuck isn't a medical researcher.

              4 out of 5 doctors will say whatever their industry partners tell them is true.

              It is just a stupid statement on the level of "you can drown in a teaspoon of water."

              Being a doctor doesn't make a persons words correct. Who says a thing, or in the case, who repeats a thing, tells you nothing at all about how true it is. That's a basic logical blunder.

              • You realize that the results of whether caffeine is good or bad for you is mixed right?

                Doctors always default to the most conservative option because it's generally safer.

    • So, it's a group of 452 thousand people, 71% of which are women (which is not a representative sample of the population)

      If you ever become interested in scientific studies, you should learn about statistics. It turns out it doesn't matter what the percentage of different demographics are, as long as you have a large enough number of each subgroup.

      It's shameful.

      Ignorance is only shameful when it pretends to know stuff.

      • They only controlled for one variable, and didn't break down their data.

        For it to have been sound, they would have needed to account for other eating habits and medical histories which they didn't seem to do.

        • From the abstract:

          Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs were estimated using multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression models adjusted for other mortality risk factors.

          Just wave your hands and lie, the science might go away, or maybe there are no nerds on slashdot who might actually read something? I didn't read the story, but I did read the abstract of the actual study.

  • More than 2 glasses a day
    Compared with
    Less than 1 glass per month.

    So comparing 120+ to 1 per month.

    It's probably fairly obvious there will be some differences in these 2 groups...

    • Indeed, the content of the soda aside, I suspect the people drinking 1 soda per month probably otherwise take better care of their health than do those drinking 2 per day. So it would be more accurate to say that being the type of person who would drink 2 sodas per day increases your risk of dying (sooner...we've all got a 100% chance eventually)

    • You should read the study, they didn't account for things like how the Caffeine would affect people, the average age of the group was 50, it was over 70% women, and they didn't account for other unhealthy habits in their lives.

      This study is mostly bullshit.

  • No more soft drinks for me.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • These dopes keep confusing correlation and causation. This is probably why 2/3rds of all recent research papers cannot be reproduced. They've probably actually discovered that obesity causes death and obesity causes the ingestion of sugary drinks.

  • Sweetened or unsweetened, drinking a half-liter or more of Carbonic acid everyday, for years, might have adverse effects.

    • Do you have some phobia about the word "acid"?

      Fruit juice is acid, coffee is acid, tea is acid, pickled things are loaded with acid, yogurt is acidic.....

      acid is fine, really

      • The key word wasn't "acid" but "carbonic."

        Actually, CO2 solutions in water get called "carbonic acid" and there will be some, but it isn't the main thing happening there.

        Citric acid is part of an important cycle in your body.

        CO2 is something your body works hard to get rid of. It is not reasonable to just say "they're both acids, they must be the same."

        That said, past studies on carbonated water didn't find any negative effects. But not enough people drink non-soda, non-beer carbonated beverages to ever do

        • But it has been studied, since natural carbonated water exists, besides people using it for a couple centuries for soft drinks. No health harm if pH is from 3 to 4 as it is with the bottled stuff people buy to put in fruit juice or just drink.

          Body doesn't "work hard" to get rid of the co2 in drinks, you might belch but that's it.

          it's a non-issue. Any harmful things are added, like excessive sugar, weird unnatural chemicals, alcohol (popular mixer, after all), etc.

          • Your anecdote doesn't describe a study, or a large enough sample to be likely to uncover anything. Also the effects wouldn't be quick enough for the locals drinking it to even suspect a correlation.

            Also, you added words to what I said about the body working hard to remove CO2, so I'm not going to argue past you, just inform you that you didn't understand what I said.

            And yes, I know, "whatabutt the Alamo!"

  • Lyin' Donnie drinks half a case of Diet Coke every day!
  • At this point, given the nasty amount of sugar particularly in Coca Cola and other popular American brands (terrifically high sugar content seems to be the baseline of American sodas when compared to practically anything European and Asian), we've certainly passed the point of "can" and are now at the point of "will".

    • plenty of 100% natural things have just as much sugar, or more

      Eat a half kilo of grapes (3X time calories of a can of cola) every day and let us know in 10 years how well that went for you.

  • Ok then it's time to lower the beer age to 18 in the usa!

  • I think Philip J. Fry [imgflip.com] has the best quote on that topic.

  • Another useless correlation study (Score:3)

    by guacamole ( 24270 ) on Friday September 06, 2019 @04:12PM (#59167040)

    Geez, can we all stop quoting and reciting these useless dietology stories? No academic field compromised itself more than it. I can't believe they're wasting so much money on this.

  • Increases death rate? In that case give me a case.
  • when you pry it from my cold dead hands. Oh, wait.

    • That's what my diabetic dad said at the nursing home when he was sick, but then he found out nobody would give him quarters for the vending machine.

      Until he was feeling better, then they'd forget.

  • I'm diabetic, so all of mine are sugar-free. :D

    Yeah, yeah, I've heard all about the whole "artificial sweeteners will kill you" studies. But to get the same ratio as the test subjects I'd be consuming pallets-full every day, so I'm not too worried.

  • Your risk of dying is 100%. That comes with biological existence. The only question is whether it happens earlier or later. But I am sure some asshole will earn some profit from this "story".

  • Anyone who has consumed carrots, eventually dies! I finally gave up soda about 5 months ago, opt'ing for flavored water (tap, not bottled), or diet cranberry juice (past history with kidney stones). In that 5 months of giving up soda (Mt. Dew) and the caffeine, along with walking a couple times a week...down 20 pounds, BP back to normal, better sleep, blood sugar almost normal. Just gave it up cold turkey. Strange...always thought people giving up caffeine would have headaches. Never had a one of them.

  • Never mind the sweet sugar or chemical sweetener.
    What about fizzy seltzer water which is what I have been drinking for 30 years - if its the fizz and not the sweet we (I) need to know!

  • I'm sorry... this was one of the worst research papers I've seen. It said "We didn't learn anything after spending lots of money and time that couldn't be accounted for by a simply considering margins of errors or tolerances but after spending all this money we had to draw a conclusion or someone would run an audit"

    The numbers are so utterly stupid that the conclusions being drawn are little more than a rounding error.

    It tells people "We found something" and draws a conclusion from soft drinks that the reas

  • These sorts of studies always end up being observational studies (and meta-analyses of largely observational studies) which cannot determine causation, only correlation. On this magnificent website, you'll see that:

    • U.S. spending on science, space, and technology correlates with suicides by hanging, strangulation, or suffocation;
    • the divorce rate in Maine correlates with per capita consumption of margarine; and
    • Japanese passenger cars sold in the U.S. correlates with suicides by crashing of motor vehicle.

    Corr

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