SSB Consumption Allegedly Linked to 184,000 Deaths Annually

Tufts University researchers have purportedly implicated sugar-sweetened
beverages (SSBs) in 184,000 deaths worldwide each year
after estimating the role of SSB consumption in adiposity-related
cardiovascular diseases (CVD), cancers and diabetes. Gitanjali Singh, et
al., “Estimated Global, Regional, and National Disease Burdens Related
to Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption in 2010,” Circulation,
July 2015. Relying on data from 611,971 individuals surveyed between
1980 and 2010, “along with data on national availability of sugar in
187 countries and other information,” the study estimates that SSB
consumption allegedly contributed to 133,000 deaths from diabetes,
45,000 deaths from CVD, and 6,450 deaths from cancer. It also notes
that among the most populous countries, Mexico had the largest absolute
and proportional deaths from SSBs, with proportional mortality reaching
30 percent in Mexican adults younger than age 45.

“The health impact of sugar-sweetened beverage intake on the young is
important because younger adults form a large sector of the workforce in
many countries, so the economic impact of sugar-sweetened beverage-related
deaths and disability in this age group can be significant,” said
one of the study’s authors in a June 29, 2015, press release. “It also
raises concerns about the future. If these young people continue to
consume high levels as they age, the effects of high consumption will be
compounded by the effects of aging, leading to even higher death and
disability rates from heart disease and diabetes than we are seeing now.”