Soft drinks add to diabetes and heart disease factors

Soft drinks including diet versions may be linked with increased risk factors for diabetes and heart disease according to new US research published in the journal Circulation.

The study found that adults who drank one or more soft drinks a day had around a 50% higher risk of metabolic syndrome which includes excessive fat around the waist, low levels of “good” cholesterol, high blood pressure, and other symptoms.

Prior studies had linked consumption of sugar-laden soft drinks with multiple risk factors for heart disease but the US study found the link also extended to diet drinks.

They had a 30% increased risk of developing a bigger waist, which had been shown to predict heart disease risk better than weight alone.

But the American Heart Association, which publishes Circulation, said that the study did not demonstrate that diet soft drinks caused heart disease and that it could still be better to have a diet drink than a full-calories soft drink. The association said it supported a dietary pattern which included low-calories beverages like water, diet soft drinks, and fat-free or low-fat milk as better choices than full-calories soft drinks.