Just 2 glasses of soft drinks daily tied to higher death risk
Most soft drinks pose a health risk, and new research finds that two glasses of soft drinks per day may raise early death risk.
Because the findings are that of an observational study, they do not prove that regular soft drink consumption drives early death. However, the research team concludes that the results endorse health initiatives to reduce public consumption of such beverages.
A recent paper in JAMA Internal Medicine describes how the international study group analyzed data on 451,743 adults from 10 European countries.
The data came from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC).
EPIC is an ongoing cohort whose participants enlisted between 1992 and 2000 and who live in Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
On enrolment, the participants gave information about their food and drink consumption, either by filling in questionnaires or in interviews. Their average age was 51 years old, and 71% were female. None had heart disease, cancer, diabetes, or stroke at the outset.
Of the participants taking part in the analysis, 41,693 died during a follow-up that averaged 16.4 years and ranged from 11.1 years in Greece to 19.2 years in France.