Sugary drinks linked to millions of new diabetes, cardiovascular disease cases worldwide

Key takeaways:

• In 2020, about one in 10 new type 2 diabetes cases and one in 30 new CVD cases globally were tied to sugary drinks.
• The same year, there were around 340,000 deaths from SSB-attributed type 2 diabetes and CVD.

A significant proportion of new cases of CVD and diabetes globally can be attributed to the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, according to a new study published in Nature Medicine.

In 2020 — the last year of the study period — researchers estimated that one in 10 new cases of type 2 diabetes mellitus could be connected to the intake of sugar-sweetened beverages.

The effects of the drinks on these diseases were especially pronounced in developing countries and show a need for “urgent, evidence-based interventions to curb consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages globally, before even more lives are shortened by their effects on diabetes and heart disease,” Laura Lara-Castor, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and the study’s lead author, said in a press release.

High consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages has been tied to several adverse health outcomes, including liver cancer, obesity and atrial fibrillation, but global disease burden attributable to sugary drinks by several demographics “have yet to be reported at a global scale,” Lara-Castor and colleagues wrote.

In the analysis, they assessed the effects of sugar-sweetened beverages on cardiometabolic diseases in 184 countries from 1990 to 2020.

During the study period globally, the proportion of type 2 diabetes incidence attributable to sugar-sweetened beverages rose by 1.3% absolute percentage points (95% uncertainty interval [UI], 0.9%-1.7%), whereas CVD incidence decreased by 0.1% absolute percentage points (95% UI, 0.3% to 0%).

The researchers reported 2.2 million new type 2 diabetes cases and 1.2 million new CVD cases in 2020 worldwide attributable to sugar-sweetened beverages, which corresponded to increases of 9.8% for type 2 diabetes (95% UI, 9.1%-10.5%) and 3.1% for CVD (95% UI, 2.8%-3.4%).

They also estimated approximately 340,000 deaths from sugar-sweetened beverages —attributable type 2 diabetes and CVD in 2020.

Sugar-sweetened beverages showed significant impacts in regions like Latin American and the Caribbean, contributing to 24.4% (95% UI, 22.3%-26.9%) of new type 2 diabetes cases and 11.3% (95% UI, 10.1%-12.8%) of new CVD cases in 2020.

Similar results occurred in sub-Saharan Africa, where 10.5% (95% UI, 8.1%-13.3%) of new CVD cases could be attributed to sugar-sweetened beverages .

Columbia (48.1%; 95% UI, 39.3%-57.3%), Mexico (30%; 95% UI, 26.4%-35%) and South Africa (27.6%; 95% UI, 22.1%-34.6%) comprised the top three countries with the highest burden of type 2 diabetes attributed to sugary drinks among the 30 most populous nations globally.

“Sugar-sweetened beverages are heavily marketed and sold in low- and middle-income nations,” Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, PhD, a professor of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine and study co-author, said in the release. “Not only are these communities consuming harmful products, but they are also often less well equipped to deal with the long-term health consequences.”

Lara-Castor and colleagues added that proportional burdens for type 2 diabetes and CVD attributed to sugary drinks globally appear higher among younger vs. older adults, men vs. women, adults with higher vs. lower educational attainment and urban vs. rural adults.

The researchers highlighted several possible policy approaches that could help to address the negative health effects of sugar-sweetened beverages , such as marketing regulations, water sanitation efforts, school food regulation and food labeling.

“Taxation based on sugar density also influences product reformulation, promoting the availability of lower-sugar options,” they wrote.

“Much more needs to be done, especially in countries in Latin America and Africa where consumption is high and the health consequence severe,” Mozaffarian said in the release. “As a species, we need to address sugar-sweetened beverage consumption.”

References:

• Lara-Castor L, et al. Nat Med. 2025;doi:10.1038/s41591-024-03345-4.
• New study links millions of diabetes and heart disease cases globally to sugary drinks. Available at: https://now.tufts.edu/2025/01/06/new-study-links-millions-diabetes-and-heart-disease-cases-globally-sugary-drinks. Published Jan. 6, 2024. Accessed Jan. 7, 2024.