Is consuming sugar-sweetened beverages, artificially sweetened beverages, and fruit juice associated with excess risk for developing type 2 diabetes? To answer this question, researchers performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of 17 multinational cohort studies (>460,000 adults; age range, 19–84). Median follow-up ranged from 3.4 to 21.1 years. About 28,000 study patients developed type 2 diabetes.
Higher consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages was associated with significantly higher risk for type 2 diabetes: 18% higher risk per 1 serving daily. After adjustment for baseline adiposity, risk was still 13% higher. Consuming artificially sweetened beverages also was associated with higher risk (25% and 8% higher risk per 1 serving daily, before and after adjusting for adiposity) as was consuming fruit juices (5% and 7% higher risk per 1 serving daily, before and after adjustment). However, the researchers could not exclude publication bias, confounding, and differential ascertainment of diabetes cases for the studies in which artificially sweetened beverages and fruit juices were assessed.
