On a bright sunny day, even a sip of a cold sugary drink seems godsend. But, can its health implications be overlooked? As per a study conducted by scientists at the American Heart Association, women who consumed 2 or more glasses of sugar-sweetened beverages on a daily basis presumably had higher waistlines, greater levels of triglycerides and elevated risk for type 2 diabetes.
Moreover, women are apparently more vulnerable to cardiovascular risk through sugary drinks because they need lesser calories than men. For the study, middle-aged women and older women who consumed 2 or more sugar sweetened drinks were pitted against women who drank one or less drinks everyday.
“Women who drank more than two sugar-sweetened drinks a day had increasing waist sizes, but weren’t necessarily gaining weight. These women also developed high triglycerides and women with normal blood glucose levels more frequently went from having a low risk to a high risk of developing diabetes over time,†commented Christina Shay, Ph.D., lead author of the study and assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City.
The results showed that women in the former group were seemingly 4 times likelier to possess high triglycerides and had more chances of developing greater waist size. They also appeared to encounter abnormal fasting glucose levels. This link was supposedly not seen in men.
The team is yet to find how sugar-sweetened drinks influence cardiovascular risk in skinny women too. The analysis was presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2011.