This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
100% fruit juice, soda linked to increased mortality
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Drinking 100% fruit juices and other sugar-sweetened beverages such as soft drinks, sodas and fruit-flavored drinks was associated with increased all-cause mortality, according to findings recently published in JAMA Network Open.
“Despite some declines, [sugar-sweetened beverage] consumption remains well above recommended levels,” Lindsay J. Collin, MPH, of the department of epidemiology at Emory University, and colleagues wrote. “Less attention has been given to the role of 100% fruit juice consumption, which tends to be perceived as a healthy beverage option.”
Researchers used a validated food-frequency questionnaire to estimate sugar-sweetened beverage and 100% fruit juice consumption of 13,440 participants (mean age, 63.6 years; 59.3% men; 68.9% non-Hispanic white and 70.8% overweight or obese) from a previously existing cohort not known to have coronary heart disease, stroke or diabetes.
Collin and colleagues found that the mean daily sugary beverage consumption among the group was 8.4%, with 4% of it coming from 100% fruit juice. Risk-adjusted HRs for those whose daily sugar-sweetened beverage consumption was 10% or more of their total energy intake was 1.14 (95% CI, 0.97-1.33) for all-cause mortality vs. those whose intake was 5% or less. In addition, risk-adjusted HRs were 1.11 (95% CI, 1.03-1.19) for each additional 12 ounces of sugary beverage drank and 1.24 (95% CI, 1.09-1.42) for each similar amount of fruit juice drank.
“Given the prominent role that sugary beverages play in the U.S. diet, these results provide support for public health efforts to reduce consumption. Importantly, while an increasing number of program and policy initiatives have focused on reducing the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverage, our results suggest that these efforts should be extended to include fruit juices,” Collin and colleagues wrote.
Marta Guasch-Ferré and Frank B. Hu, MD, PhD, of the department of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, underscored part of that point in an accompanying editorial.
“The deleterious effects of sugar-sweetened beverages are well established, and individual efforts and policy solutions are needed to reduce consumption levels. Although fruit juices may not be as deleterious as sugar-sweetened beverages, their consumption should be moderated in children and adults, especially for individuals who wish to control their body weight,” they wrote. – by Janel Miller
Disclosures: Hu reports receiving grants from the NIH, research support from the California Walnut Commission, honoraria from Metagenics and Standard Process for lectures and honoraria from Diet Quality Photo Navigation outside the submitted work. No other disclosures were reported.