Soft drinks have come in for a lot of criticism over the last several years. Some experts have claimed that the obesity epidemic in the US can be traced in part to America’s weakness for soda. (See Dr. Marion Nestle’s new book, Soda Politics.) But do they really do any harm?
Older Men Drinking Sugary Beverages Are More Prone to Heart Failure:
A new study from Sweden shows that men who drank at least two soft drinks or sweetened juice beverages a day were 23 percent more likely to develop heart failure than men who did not indulge in sweet drinks. (The researchers did not look at consumption of plain fruit juice, coffee or tea.)
The study included 42,400 men between 45 and 79 and took 12 years to complete. There were 4,000 heart failure events, including 500 deaths, during that time.
The investigators suggest that sweet beverages appear to have negative metabolic effects, which might contribute to heart failure.
