Soft, juice drinks daily ups diabetes risk

BOSTON, July 29 (UPI) -- Daily consumption of soft drinks and fruit drinks is associated with an increased risk for type 2 diabetes in African-American women, U.S. researchers said.

Lead author Julie Palmer of the Boston University School of Public Health examined data from the Black Women's Health Study -- an ongoing prospective study of 59,000 African-American women from all parts of the United States that included information on height, weight, demographic characteristics, medical history, usual diet and other factors. Every two years, follow-up questionnaires requested updated information on lifestyle factors, occurrences of diabetes and other serious illnesses.

The researchers found 2,713 participants developed diabetes during the first 10 years of follow-up in the study.

The study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, found women who consumed two or more soft drinks a day had a 24 percent increase in incidence of diabetes relative to women who drank less than one soft drink per month. A similar association was observed for sweetened fruit drinks, with a 31 percent increase observed for two or more servings per day relative to less than one per month.

"The public should be made aware that sweetened fruit drinks are not a healthy alternative to soft drinks with regard to risk of type 2 diabetes," Palmer said.