JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – More bad news for those who consume sugary drinks. Experts now say they could be linked to as many as 184,000 deaths worldwide every year.
Researchers at Tufts University looked at dozens of surveys from more than 50 countries.They found sugary drinks, like soda, were directly linked to 133,000 deaths from diabetes in 2010. These numbers are in addition to 45,000 deaths from heart disease.
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Dr. Vendana Bhide is with the Mayo clinic and joined the Morning Show to talk about the study, which was published in the journal Circulation and detailed in Forbes. "The countries where people had the most sugary beverages had the highest rates of diabetes, vascular disease, and deaths from those illnesses. We know that with previous studies that diabetes is caused by sugar and vascular disease is worsen by sugar. So the thought is that the countries with people drinking the most sugar beverages have high rates of diabetes and deaths from diabetes and cardiovascular disease".
Bhide advocates cutting out these drinks from our diet. "There is no nutritional value, no health benefits of either sodas or diet sodas. So they're empty calories, better to use your calories to get some kind of nutritional value".
Bhide says that by slowly reducing your intake of of sugar beverages, you will feel better and you won't crave sugar all the time.
The American Beverage Association does not agree with the results of the study and point out that many other factors contribute to heart disease, cancer and diabetes.