Not just soda: drinking too much fruit juice (or a sweet drink) carries the risk of premature death

Many sugar sweetened drinks have little or no nutritional value and many calories, and the harmful effects are well documented. Now, one study associates drinking too many sweet drinks - and even 100% natural fruit juice - with an increased risk of premature death.

In particular, drinking excessive amounts of fruit juice may increase the risk of premature death from 9% to 42%, according to the study published on Friday in JAMA Network Open.

Overall, the sugars contained in orange juice, although found in nature, are added to the sugar, soda and other sweet drinks, much as studies show.

"Sweet drinks, whether soft drinks or fruit juices, should be limited," wrote Jean A. Welsh, co-author of the study and assistant professor at the Department of Pediatrics of Emory University in Atlanta, in an e-mail.

Connection to cardiovascular diseases

Seven US cities, including New York and Philadelphia, have levied taxes on added sugar sweeteners to reduce consumption. This law often highlights how soda and other sweet drinks contribute to the childhood obesity epidemic and high rates of adult diabetes.

This new study defines "sweet drinks" as sweet-thirsty producers with sugars such as soda and fruit-flavored infusions, as well as 100% natural fruit juice with no added sugar. How does fruit juice accumulate against soda?

"Previous research has shown that high sugar intake, as in soft drinks and fruit juices, is associated with multiple risk factors for cardiovascular disease," Welsh said. Obesity, diabetes and high levels of triglycerides (a type of fat in the blood) are some of the risk factors for excessive sugar intake. "Several studies have shown how this consumption can affect the risk of death," he said.

To solve this problem, he and his colleagues in the Stroke study reused data for geographical and racial differences to understand why more African Americans die from strokes than other races, and why people in the Southeast suffer more punishment than others in other regions of the United States.

Based on this multiethnic study, Welsh and his co-authors analyzed data from 13,440 adults, ages 45+, nearly 60% of men, and nearly 71% of them were overweight or obese.

People who consume 10% or more of their daily calories as sugary drinks are 44% more likely to die from coronary heart disease and 14% more likely to die prematurely for some reason than people who die less Sweet, as the research shows, consume 5% of their daily calories as drinks.

Any additional 12 ounces of fruit juice per day will increase the risk of death by 24%, and any additional 12 ounces of sweetened beverages per day will increase the risk by 11%. A similar relationship between sweet drinks and deaths due to coronary heart disease was not found.

"If we look at our results for sugar-sweetened drinks and juices independently, we need to understand that the risks presented are in proportion to the risks that exist for each of the lowest consumers," Welsh said.

He was not surprised by the results. He and his co-authors say that "a number of possible biological mechanisms" explain the increased risk of death. For example, research shows that sweet drinks increase insulin resistance, which is known to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, while fructose intake can stimulate hormones that increase body weight around the waist - a risk factor for others cardiovascular disease.

The recommended amount of fruit juice

This is one of the first studies that investigates the relationship between sweet drinks, including 100% fruit juice, and early death, writes Marta Guasch-Ferré, a researcher at the Department of Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chans School of Public Health and dr. Frank B. Hu, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, in an editorial published with the new study.

However, this research is limited to what he can convey to us, said Guasch-Ferré and Hu, who were not involved in the research. With so few deaths associated with coronary heart disease, the analysis here is considered weak. more time and a higher number of participants could give a stronger signal. In addition, consumption of sweet drinks for each participant is recorded only at the beginning of the study, based on self-reporting, which is not considered reliable.

"Although fruit juices may not be as bad as sugar-sweetened beverages, their consumption needs to be moderated by children and adults, especially those looking to control their weight," wrote Guasch-Ferré and Hu.

The recommendation for children between 1 and 6 years is to limit the consumption of fruit juice to 6 ounces per day, while children over the age of 7, adolescents and adults must limit fruit juice to 8 ounces per day, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics Nutrition Guidelines for Americans ,

"Further research is needed to study the health risks and potential benefits of certain fruit juices," said Guasch-Ferré and Hu.

Welsh says we have to consider fruit juices and sugar-sweetened drinks when we think about how much sugar we consume daily. Between the two he tipped on the scales, which supports the fruit juice: "Given the vitamins and minerals, small amounts of fruit juice can have a beneficial effect that you do not see with soda and other sweet drinks."

By Susan Scutti, Via :CNN

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