A large-scale Swedish study on Monday suggested that drinking sweetened drinks can significantly increase your risk of serious cardiovascular diseases like stroke, heart failure, and atrial fibrillation.
The study also showed that eating too much-added sugar can increase the risk of stroke or aneurysm. However, limited consumption of treats can be safe.
“Consuming sweet drinks was worse for your health than any other form of sugar,” noted the study published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health.
Suzanne Janzi, a doctoral candidate at Lund University said that the sweetened beverages, which contain liquid sugars, “typically provide less satiety than solid forms”
Janzi said this makes people feel less satiated “potentially leading to overconsumption”.
Moreover, unlike treats that are “often enjoyed in social settings or special occasions, sweetened beverages might be consumed more regularly.”
To understand how sugar consumption affects cardiovascular disease risk, the team collected data from two major studies with a sample of 69,705 participants.
The study evaluated the link between honey, treats like a pastry, or sweetened beverages like fizzy drinks—and seven cardiovascular diseases: two different types of stroke, heart attacks, heart failure, aortic aneurysms, atrial fibrillation, and aortic stenosis.
During the 10 years of follow-up, 25,739 participants were diagnosed with cardiovascular disease.
High intake of sugar in general raised the risk of ischemic stroke and abdominal aortic aneurysm. It also spiked the risk of heart failure in participants with a normal BMI.
Notably, they found that the highest risks of a negative health outcome arose in the lowest intake category for treats, suggesting that “extremely low sugar intake may not be necessary or beneficial for cardiovascular health.”
However, Janzi said the study is “observational and cannot establish causation”.
