Study Claims Soda Can Kill You

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sodaWhile you might feel guilty sipping down the calories in a can of Coca-Cola (KO), a new study from Harvard researchers isn’t going to help you justify your soda habit.

Sugary drinks are linked to 180,000 deaths a year around the world, with 25,000 people alone dying in the U.S. from health problems related to sodas and other sweetened beverages, the researchers found.

“We know that sugar-sweetened beverages are linked to obesity, and that a large number of deaths are caused by obesity-related diseases. But until now, nobody had really put these pieces together,” said Harvard School of Public Health postdoctoral research fellow and lead author Gitanjali Singh, according to ABC News.

The assertion will likely be received with welcome ears by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has waged a war against large servings of soda and other sugary drinks.

A judge struck down Bloomberg’s citywide ban earlier this month, calling it “arbitrary and capricious.” But Bloomberg has vowed to continue his fight, noting, “People are dying every day.” That’s something the study seems to support, with researchers finding that 1 out of 100 deaths of obese people can be blamed on too many sweetened beverages.

Of the deaths linked to sweetened drinks in 2010, most were from diabetes, with cardiovascular disease and cancer the No. 2 and No. 3 causes, respectively.

One woman’s death was linked to her Coca-Cola habit when a New Zealand coroner last month said 31-year old Natasha Harris’ sugar and caffeine intake was a “substantial factor in her demise. She drank more than 2.6 gallons of classic Coke each day, according to ABC News.

The American Beverage Association, a trade group, attacked the Harvard research, which hasn’t yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal but was presented at the American Heart Association’s annual meeting this week.

The study “is more about sensationalism than science,” the group said in a statement. “It does not show that consuming sugar-sweetened beverages causes chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease or cancer — the real causes of death among the studied subjects.”

The statement adds that the researchers “make a huge leap” when linking sweetened beverages to the deaths.

Source: MSN MONEY NOW

{Matzav.com Newscenter}


8 COMMENTS

  1. Sounds like a Bloomberg study. Yagati umatzati… if you search hard enough you’ll find anything, you’ll even find that mineral water can kill you.

  2. Not bad science, but incomplete science. Soda – sugary or artificially sweetened – has been linked to diabetes and other consequences of obesity. The link is correlational – there are probably multiple causes for each disease – but drinking even diet sodas seems to have an effect (perhaps it’s the sweet taste itself, and not the calories, that cause changes in metabolism). Drinking sodas instead of water or real food beverages isn’t good for you, period. Try water – it’s free, no calories or artificial sweeteners, and no studies link it with chronic illnesses 🙂

  3. foolish article.
    orange juice also kills – that is if you drink crazy amounts and you have OTHER health problems and should not drink it.
    Meat also kills – if you eat crazy amounts and have OTHER health problems and should not eat it.

    Also the article does NOT say that the soda was the sole reason of obesity. Does this mean a person who is healthy and eats a normal diet yet drinks a lot of soda will die????????

  4. According to the US CDC, “In 2007, 27,658 unintentional drug overdose deaths occurred in the United States.” http://www.cdc.gov/homeandrecreationalsafety/pdf/poison-issue-brief.pdf

    So why are drugs illegal and sugary drinks legal? Let us not even get into the problem of tobacco.

    It is unfortunate that there is a great deal of hysterical irrationality when it comes to the topic of drugs. If consumer items were made illegal strictly on the basis of the health hazard they present, the first item to outlaw would be tobacco followed by alcohol and then of course the automobile. There is no end to the number of legal and socially acceptable items that are dangerous to one’s health like sugary drinks.

    What comes out of this is that was is legal or illegal is more based on political consideration than any objective criteria. That is why it is fundamentally dangerous to allow politicians to outlaw things. Such laws are usually a result of what the “highest bidder” believes needs being outlawed.

  5. To #1 –
    Why don’t you do a little of your own research about sugary sodas, high fructose corn syrup, transfats in margarines, processed foods etc….and you will be singing another tune….

  6. To Shalom: Your comment is nonsense. Mayor Bloomberg may have no authority to tell you what to drink but still have common sense. Soda is not healthy – a little here and there won’t kill you. If someone has a can a day that is not healthy! All yeshivah’s and Jewish schools should cut back on the non healthy foods and canteens. Lets be honest with ourselves.

    Sincerely,
    A Occasional Soda Drinker (I Vote Coke!)

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