Everyone knows that increased sugar intake increases your risk for type 2 diabetes and obesity. The consumer market competes daily on how to cater to the average individual’s sweet tooth. In a society that loves the indulgence of super-sized drinks, it becomes easy to fall prey. Given the metabolism and breakdown of sugar takes place in the liver, it is no surprise excess sugar intake can lead to major liver problems.
According to a recent study conducted at Tufts University, and published in the Journal of Hepatology, drinking sugary drinks daily puts you at risk for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.1 This condition can eventually lead to liver cirrhosis, just like with alcohol, in some cases liver cancer, and have the individual needing a liver transplant.2
In the study, 2,634 self-reported dietary questionnaires from mostly Caucasian middle-aged men and women enrolled in the National Heart Lunch and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Framingham Heart Study’s Offspring and Third Generation cohorts were analyzed. The sugary beverages listed on the questionnaires comprised of caffeinated and caffeine-free colas, other carbonated beverages with sugar, fruit punches, lemonade or other non-carbonated fruit drinks. Afterwards, a computed tomography (CT) scan was carried out on the participants to determine the quantity of fat in the liver and the authors of the current study used a previously defined cut-point to identify NAFLD.
Among the participants who drank sugar sweetened beverages, those who drank one or more sugar-sweetened beverage per day experienced a higher prevalence rate and had a 60% greater risk of NAFLD compared to people who said they drank no sugar-sweetened beverages. This association was still evident even after controlling for possible confounders, which could affect the results, such as age, sex, body mass index, calories and other risk factors. Basically, the more sugary beverage the people drank, the greater the risk. An estimated two thirds of the participants drank at least some fruit, cola or other sugary beverage, and over 10% drank the sugary beverage daily.