Consuming two or more glasses of sweetened drinks per day may increase the risk of heart failure, according to a new Swedish study.
Researchers of the report, which was published in the British Medical Journal, followed approximately 42,000 men between the ages of 45 to 79 throughout a period of nearly 12 years to establish a link between heart failure and sweetened beverages. The drinks accounted for in the study “only included soft drinks/soda and these can either be sweetened with sugar or artificial sweetener.”
Authors of the study documented more than 4,000 instances of heart failure among study participants. Men who drank more than two sweetened drinks per day had a 23 percent higher chance of developing heart failure compared to men who did not drink these beverages.
“The takeaway message is that people who regularly consume sweetened beverages should consider limiting their consumption to reduce their risk of heart failure,” Dr. Susanna Larsson, a researcher at the Stockholm Karolinska Institutet, told CNN.
Although the research focused on men, women are also advised to be careful about sweetened drinks, Larsson said.
“Sweetened beverage consumption has been associated with blood pressure, insulin concentration, weight gain, obesity and type 2 diabetes also in women,” she said.
Across the globe, more than 23 million people have heart failure, which occurs when the heart is unable to pump sufficient amounts of blood and oxygen through the body. The number of individuals with the condition is on the rise, in part because of the consumption of sodas and other sweetened beverages, Larsson and her colleagues say in the journal Heart.
In the United States, about 6 million people live with heart failure, CNN reported.
“Patients with heart failure are severely limited in their ability to perform daily tasks, they get short of breath for even small efforts like walking one block, or sometimes even walking inside their house,” said Dr. Roberto Bolli, chief of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, according to CNN.
Other findings included that men who consumed the most sodas and sweetened drinks were less likely to be university educated, typically ate fewer servings and vegetables and are slightly more likely to consume a minimum of three cups of coffee daily.
While researchers specifically studied Swedish men, they said the results can likely be applied to men in the United States. Still, they said additional research would be required due to variances in American culture and diet.
“It is safe to admit that sweetened beverages are usually components of a poor quality dietary pattern and that overall dietary patterns better represent the broader picture of food habits and are more important determinants of disease than any isolated food or beverage,” researchers from the University of Navarra in Spain wrote in an editorial accompanying the study. “Meanwhile more research in this field is available, and taking into account the existing evidence, the advice to the general population should be that their most sensible option will be to reduce or eliminate their consumption of sweetened beverages replacing them with water to comply with the requirements for a good hydration.”
One limitation authors acknowledge about the study is its dependence on men to accurately remember and report their drinking habits. Furthermore, the study did not have data that differentiated sugar from artificial sweeteners.
Researchers from the University of Navarra added that other factors unaccounted for in the report, including physical activity and dietary habits, may have had an effect on the development of heart failure in the men.
