Sugary Drinks Tied to More Heart Attacks

Men who frequently drink sodas and other sugar-sweetened beverages may be putting themselves at risk of a heart attack, an observational study showed.

In a study of male healthcare professionals, those who consumed the most sugary drinks - a median of 6.5 per week - were 20% more likely to have a myocardial infarction (MI) during follow-up than those who never drank them (RR 1.20, 95% CI 1.09 to 1.33), according to Frank Hu, MD, PhD, of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, and colleagues.

A similar relationship was not seen for consumption of artificially sweetened diet beverages, they reported online in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

"These results, as well as those from other observational studies and trials, support recommendations to reduce the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages in order to prevent cardiovascular disease," the authors wrote.

Sugar-sweetened beverages have been associated with weight gain and type 2 diabetes, but few studies have examined the relationship between the sugary drinks and coronary heart disease.

Hu and colleagues looked at data from the Health Professionals Follow-Up study, a prospective cohort study of mostly white men who were ages 40 to 75 at baseline in 1986.

Soft drinks - soda and other sugary drinks such as sweetened iced tea, fruit drinks and energy drinks - add sugar and calories to your diet without providing much, if any, nutrition. While just one 12 oz. soda contains approximately 8 tsp. of sugar, the recommended daily limit for women equals 6 tsp. and for men equals 9 tsp., MayoClinic.com says. Most Americans average 22 tsp.of sugar per day. Too much sugar in your diet may lead to health problems.

Overweight Children

Soda and other sweetened beverages are significant factors in the increased rate of childhood obesity, which can lead to type 2 diabetes, asthma, sleep apnea and high blood pressure. Adolescents get 15 tsp. of sugar per day from soft drinks, which makes up approximately 11 percent of their total calories, according to the NetWellness website. Excess sugar can also come from juices. Ounce for ounce, cranberry juice cocktail has more sugar than soda, and orange juice has the same amount, according to the Harvard School of Public Health. Harvard recommends that sweetened beverages should be drunk rarely or not at all.

The current analysis included 42,883 participants after excluding those with type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or cancer at baseline.

The men reported their consumption of sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened beverages at baseline and every four years using a food frequency questionnaire. At baseline, the average intake was 2.5 sugar-sweetened beverages and 3.4 artificially sweetened beverages each week.

Over 22 years of follow-up, there were 3,683 incident coronary heart disease cases, defined as fatal or nonfatal MIs.