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 So-called visceral fat in the midsection wraps around internal
organs like the liver and pancreas and affects the function of
hormones like insulin. Insulin dysfunction, and becoming resistant
to insulin, is closely tied to type 2 diabetes and heart disease
risk.
“A lot of prior studies have looked at sugar-sweetened beverages and
obesity,” said lead author Dr. Caroline S. Fox. “We looked at body
fat distribution, in particular change over time.”
Fox, a former investigator with the Framingham Heart Study of the
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, is currently a special
volunteer with the National Institutes of Health.
She and her colleagues found that all participants tended to gain
visceral fat over time, but those who drank sugary beverages daily
gained more.
The researchers used data from about 1,000 adult participants in the
Framingham Heart Study in Framingham, Massachusetts, who answered
food frequency questions about sugar-sweetened beverages and diet
soda.
Sugar-sweetened beverages like regular soda and fruit punch have
added sucrose or high fructose corn syrup. Most participants said
they drank a mixture of sugary beverages and diet soda.
About a third said they never consumed sugar-sweetened beverages, 20
percent did so occasionally, 35 percent drank them frequently and 13
percent drank them daily.
At the study start, they underwent a computed tomography scan to
measure quantity and volume of abdominal fat tissue. Six years
later, they underwent another scan.
Over that period, visceral fat volume increased by 658 cubic
centimeters for non-drinkers, slightly more for occasional and
frequent drinkers, and by 852 cubic centimeters for daily drinkers
of sugary beverages, as reported in the journal Circulation.
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For daily drinkers, that’s in increase of about 0.8 kilograms, or
1.8 pounds, of abdominal fat, Fox told Reuters Health by phone.
“That’s probably a very small difference of actual visceral fat,”
but it’s enough to make a difference for metabolic risk, according
to other studies, she said.
Diet soda wasn’t linked to an increase in visceral fat.
It’s not clear from this study whether decreasing sugary beverage
intake would decrease the gain in visceral fat over time, Fox said.
The American Heart Association recommends a limit of 100 calories
per day of added sugars, such as those found in sweetened beverages,
for most women, and 150 calories per day for most men.
“Drinking one 12-ounce soft drink a day would exceed that amount –
and while they are a major source, sugar-sweetened beverages
contribute only about half of the added sugar consumed by
Americans,” said Jean Welsh of Emory University in Atlanta, who was
not part of the new study.
“Water and milk are the healthiest beverage choices,” Welsh told
Reuters Health by email. “Sugary beverage consumers who are looking
to reduce their sugar and calorie consumption may find that diet
soda consumption helps - but only as long as they are careful to not
eat more of something else.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1q3uqj1 Circulation, online January 11, 2016.
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