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Home--News
Harvard Study Links Coca-Cola to Diabetes, Weight Gain
By Kay Lazar
Boston Herald
August 25, 2004
Researchers at Harvard's School of Public Health tracked more than
91,000 women and found those who drank about a soda a day piled on
19 pounds over eight years. They also increased their risk of developing
type 2 diabetes by 83 percent.
Study Reveals Diabetes Risk
Things don't go better with Coke. Or Pepsi. Or any sugar-sweetened
soft drink.
That's according to a new study that links significant weight gain
and higher risk of type 2 diabetes in women who drink soda daily.
Researchers at Harvard's School of Public Health tracked more than
91,000 women and found those who drank about a soda a day piled on
19 pounds over eight years.
They also increased their risk of developing type 2 diabetes -- the
most common form -- by 83 percent compared to women who drank less
than one soda a month.
Link to Diabetes
Diet colas were not linked to diabetes, nor were fruit juices that
had no added sugars, said the study published in today's Journal of
the American Medical Association.
The soft drink industry blasted the findings, noting that women who
drank more sugary sodas also tended to smoke and eat more and exercise
less than non-soda drinkers.
"It is scientifically indefensible to blame any one food or beverage
for increasing the risk of type 2 diabetes," the American Beverage
Association said in a statement.
While experts debate the reported soda-diabetes link, a nutritionist
at Boston's Joslin Diabetes Center said she worries about the trend
toward super-sized sodas.
Diabetes in the Blood
"Kids are all growing up drinking this stuff and drinking huge portions
of it, so if there is a link, it's going to affect this entire population,"
said Karen Chalmers.`
The news took the fizz out of some consumers day.
"It worries me," said Nadine Wilkerson of Milton, whose grandmother
recently died of diabetes.
The 19-year-old generally drinks sugar-sweetened iced tea about three
times a week, but also admits to drinking a fair amount of soda, too.
"[Diabetes] is in my blood so there's more chance I'll get it," she
said. "I drink soda, but not as much as I used to."
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