A research published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology has shown that cardio-metabolic health is negatively impacted due to diets that include beverages sweetened with sugar.
Drinks that are artificially sweetened have been suggested as a healthier alternative, but the impact of it on cardiovascular health is not yet fully known. In this paper, researchers looked at data from the French NutriNet-Sante cohort to investigate the relationship between the risk of cardiovascular disease and consuming sugary drinks and artificially sweetened drinks.
During the research records for 104,760 participants were included and they were asked to fill out three validated web-based 24-hour dietary records every six months. Sugary drinks consisted of all beverages containing 5 percent or more sugar and artificially sweetened beverages were defined as those containing non-nutritive sweeteners. For each beverage category, individuals were divided into non-consumers, low consumers, and high consumers.
Researchers looked at first incident cases of cardiovascular disease during follow-up from 2009-2019, which were defined as stroke, transient ischemic attack, myocardial infarction, acute coronary syndrome, and angioplasty. After excluding the first three years of follow-up to account for potential reverse causality bias, 1,379 participants had first incident cases of cardiovascular disease.
When compared to non-consumers, both higher consumers of sugary drinks and artificially sweetened beverages had higher risks of first incident cardiovascular disease, after taking into account a wide range of confounding factors. In addition to a higher risk of heart health issues, Eloi Chazelas, Ph.D. student, lead author of the study, and a member of the Nutritional Epidemiology Research Team (Sorbonne Paris Nord University, Inserm, Inrae, Cnam) said the study may have further regulatory implications.
"Our study suggests artificially sweetened beverages may not be a healthy substitute for sugar drinks, and these data provide additional arguments to fuel the current debate on taxes, labeling and regulation of sugary drinks and artificially sweetened beverages," Chazelas said.
Researchers said to establish a causal link between sugary and artificially sweetened beverages and cardiovascular disease, replication in large-scale prospective cohorts and mechstic investigations will be needed.
( With inputs from ANI )
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