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.