Even 1 Soda a Day Can Hike Your Diabetes Risk

Reader Comments

Back to article

i drink drinks all the time now ill think twice

horus p. mctites of WA 12:07PM December 10, 2010

when you cut down on pop it's easy to keep heathly

brianna of IA 3:46PM December 09, 2010

How much trouble does diet soda cause, my doctor says it doesn't make any difference. I eat little but drink excessive diet soda to convince my body it is not hungry. I drink probably a gallon or more diet coke per day. If I am not eating much, why am I getting a "beer" belly when I dont drink beer?

Stephen R. Keen of WA 6:20PM December 08, 2010

i take back what i had said earlier seeing from other views that these people have no freaking idea what they are talking about

Dakota Stewart of ND 4:53PM December 02, 2010

i never knew that the one soda i had every day for my beautiful caffiene crave would put me so close to diabetes. me baing pregnant also doesnt help that matter wow and thank you for the information!!!!

Dakota Stewart of ND 11:37AM December 02, 2010

the article stated:

A study released today in the journal Diabetes Care found that people with a daily habit of just one or two sugar-sweetened beverages—anything from sodas and energy drinks to sweetened teas and vitamin water—were more than 25 percent likelier to develop type 2 diabetes than were similar individuals who had no more than one sugary drink per month. Since the overall rate of diabetes is roughly 1 in 10, an increase of 25 percent raises the risk to about 1 in 8.

~~~~~~~

That last sentence is a fallacy. You have two groups of people that differ only in consumption of sugary drinks. You do not know if the groups have the same characteristics as the overall population, such as weight, gender, age, and race. If the characteristics of the two groups are different from the overall population, the risk of drinking sugary drinks does not necessarily increase the rate of diabetes from 1 in 10 to roughly 1 in 8.

K. Perl of DC 8:10PM November 16, 2010

I agree with another poster that it might be the high fructose corn syrup that is the problem. I'm a chemist, and definitely cane sugar is not identical to HFCS (the commercials are lying, what a surprise) and we're just beginning to understand some of the differences in the way the body handles the two. And some of the evidence does indeed point to weight problems with HFCS (containing monosaccharides glucose and fructose) but not necessarily with the disaccharide sucrose (cane or beet sugar) that follows a different metabolic route when used at the same level. Plus of course there's a huge taste difference if your taste buds are still alive.... :) Cane or beet sugar tastes much much much better in soda than HFCS.

So they need to re-evaluate their data to sort it according to which kind of sweetener is in the soda people in the test are drinking. It is still difficult to get sucrose sweetened soda in the US, although more are becoming available ("throwback" promotions, for instance), so maybe everybody was already drinking HFCS-sweetened. But sucrose-sweetened is standard in most other areas of the world (Canada, Mexico, Europe, etc.) for the same brands (coca cola for instance) and so it shouldn't be impossible to get enough useful comparative data. They also could compare with US coffee/tea drinkers who get an equivalent amount of real sugar in their coffee or tea over the course of the day.

Meanwhile - you can reduce the HFCS hit by diluting the soda with good cold filtered water, which actually brings out the flavor in fruity or root beer type sodas. Try 1:1 first, then try higher dilutions. I often just add 1 or 2 ounces of soda to 8 ounces of good water and the flavor is still quite intense for many of them. For colas - well, pay extra for Mexican Coca Cola! Colas don't dilute so well, the taste gets washed out rather than enhanced.

jwoolman of IN 7:01PM November 09, 2010

Look people, drinking soda isn't bad..sure we all need to limit our intake of it and make sure that we aren't going over board with our junk food habits..Anything that deals with how we eat is all in the mind..We see good food so we eat it without hesitation and without self-control which is a problem that most people have..We love food and sugary drinks..lets face it people we love flavor..All we need to do is not let the power of junk food take over it's all a matter of mental capability..How much you could control yourself without going over the limit..But it is hard..no one said eating healthy is easy because its not..we are used to all the unhealthy food and so its hard to cope with the change but if you have a support system you will do great..but you don't have to stop treating yourself with the food you love once in a while..just limit your intake and stick to eating more healthier foods. The other reason I want to put out there is that Healthy food is too damn expensive..Those prices need to go down if society wants people to live and eat healthier. :-)

Alma Nunez of TX 7:42PM November 08, 2010

I switched my intake of "soda" from HFCS sweetened to cane sugar sweetened. Not only did my triglycerides drop to under 100 but I lost on average 5 pounds per month. NO LESS calories, just the elimination of High Fructose Corn Syrup and replacement with Cane Sugar... mostly organic cane sugar. Now am I extremely sensitive to fructose over sugar? I don't know. All I know is that when I was given IV nutrition in the hospital with fructose and glucose in it, my blood sugar was found to be over 400 and I was put on insulin. While at home my blood sugar was 90-120. After a few screaming matches with my doctors that I had not had diabetes before I was admitted and I had no intention of having it when I was discharged. The result was a diabetes specialist being called in, he went to the pharmacy and found an IV nutrition without fructose/glucose in it. Blood sugars back down to normal the same day. I cannot stand the commercials that say HFCS or corn sugar as they are now calling it is the same as sugar. It Is NOT the Same, The Body DOES know the difference. Think back to New Coke, I believe this is when HFCS was introduced in a new flavor of Coke... Everybody hated it. So they brought back Classic Coke, the orginal recipe, but still with HFCS... did not taste the same, but it was closer in flavor so the public accepted it more. Want to taste the difference? Get a Coke bottled in Mexico with cane sugar... that is the "real thing". You can't get cane sugar sweetened soda in restaurants or fast foods. But you can get it in cans and bottles. It tastes so much better than HFCS sweetened ones. Do your taste buds and your blood sugar and your triglycerides and your weight a favor... switch to cane sugar (organic when possible) and eliminate High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) and corn sugar (a rose by any other name...) completely and see if your health improves as well.

Laura of CA 6:39PM November 08, 2010

I used to drink

Diet soda- Side effect i had a reaction to aspartane and thus making me stop

aspartne is an ingriedent that kills your bones its poision

Regular soda- has a lot of sugar and it gives you cavaites so no way

Pepsi and cocaola one- have splendia still sugar just a substitue and they are still not sure avout splendia so my advice is just drink water

Joe of NY 8:26PM November 04, 2010

Add Your Thoughts
Your comment will be posted immediately, unless it is spam or contains profanity. For more information, please see our Comments FAQ.

Back to article

Exclusive Diet Rankings

Find the best diet for your needs.

advertisement

Eat + Run

advertisement