Sugary drinks are responsible for more than 2.2m new cases of diabetes and 1.1m new cases of heart disease a year around the world, according to a new study.
Global analysis published in Nature Medicine on Monday highlights growing health inequalities. In Latin America and the Caribbean, sugary drinks contributed to almost a quarter (24%) of new diabetes cases in 2020.
In sub-Saharan Africa, the region that has seen the greatest percentage increase in cases from 1990 to 2020, sugary drinks led to more than one in five (21%) new diabetes cases and more than one in 10 (11%) new cases of heart disease.
Colombia, Mexico and South Africa have been particularly hard hit, according to the study from researchers at Tufts University in the US.
Sugary drinks were responsible for almost half (48%) of all new diabetes cases in Colombia. Nearly one-third of all new diabetes cases in Mexico were linked to sugary drinks, which were also connected to more than a quarter (27.6%) of new diabetes cases and 14.6% of cases of cardiovascular disease in South Africa.
Sugary drinks are rapidly digested, causing a spike in blood-sugar levels with little nutritional value. Drinking them regularly over time leads to weight gain, insulin resistance and a host of metabolic issues tied to type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
Dariush Mozaffarian, one of the paper’s authors and director of Tuft’s Food is Medicine Institute, said: “Sugar-sweetened beverages are heavily marketed and sold in low- and middle-income nations. Not only are these communities consuming harmful products, but they are also often less well equipped to deal with the long-term health consequences.”
