September 24, 2012

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

A new study has confirmed a link between sugary sodas, and genetic susceptibility to high body mass index (BMI) and increased risk of obesity.

The team wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine that their findings reinforce the view that environmental and genetic factors shape obesity risk.

Our study for the first time provides reproducible evidence from three prospective cohorts to show genetic and dietary factorssugar-sweetened beveragesmay mutually influence their effects on body weight and obesity risk, Lu Qi, assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and senior author of the study, said in a press release.

Consuming sugary drinks in the past three decades has increased worldwide, and there has been little research on whether environmental factors like drinking these drinks can influence genetic predisposition.

For the study, the team used data from 121,700 women in the Nurses Health Study (NHS), 51,529 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS), and 25,000 in the Womens Genome Health Study (WGHS).

All of the participants in the research had completed food-frequency questionnaires detailing their food and drink consumption.

The team analyzed data from 6,934 women from NHS, 4,423 men from HPFS, and 21,740 women from WGHS who were of European ancestry.

Participants were divided into four groups depending on how many sugar drinks they consumed. The groups were broken up into those who consumed less than one serving of a sugar beverage a month, between one to four servings per month, between 2 to six servings per week, and one or more servings per day.

Go here to read the rest:
Sugary Sodas Lead To An Increased Risk Of Obesity

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