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Sugar-sweetened soft drinks increased risk for gestational diabetes
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High consumption of sugar-sweetened soft drinks prior to pregnancy significantly elevated the risk for gestational diabetes, according to new study findings.
“Compared with women who consumed less than one serving per month, those who consumed more than five servings per week of sugar-sweetened soft drinks had a 22% greater risk for gestational diabetes,” Liwei Chen, MD, PhD, assistant professor of epidemiology at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Public Health, said in a press release.
Chen and colleagues assessed the association between regular sugar-sweetened beverage consumption before pregnancy and risk for gestational diabetes in 13,475 women included in the Nurses’ Health Study II. Study participants were aged 24 to 44 years during 1989 and reported at least one singleton pregnancy from 1992 to 2001.
Participants completed a 133-item food frequency questionnaire to assess average food intake during the previous year.
During 10 years of follow-up, 860 women reported a first diagnosis of gestational diabetes.
When compared with women who consumed less than one serving of sugar-sweetened soft drinks per month, the RR for women who consumed five or more servings per week was 1.23 (95% CI, 1.05 to 1.45). This association remained significant even after adjusting for demographic and lifestyle risk factors such as race/ethnicity, smoking, alcohol intake, physical activity, BMI and family history of diabetes.
Further, each daily serving of sugar-sweetened soft drinks was associated with a 23% increased risk for gestational diabetes.
On average, more women consumed diet beverages when compared with sugar-sweetened soft drinks. At baseline, median intake was one serving per week for sugar-sweetened soft drinks and two to four servings per week for diet beverages.
According to the researchers, plausible explanations for this association may be impaired pancreatic beta cell function related to higher sugar intake; a large amount of rapidly absorbable sugars and, thus, a high-glycemic load diet; or the risk advanced glycation end products from caramel coloring.
“Further studies in other populations regarding the association between the consumption of sugar-sweetened soft drinks and risk of gestational diabetes as well as other pregnancy-related outcomes are warranted,” they wrote.
Chen L. Diabetes Care. 2009; 32: 2236–2241.