Is soda damaging your brain? Researchers from Boston University took a closer look at the health risks of drinking these deadly sugary beverages.
Soda has been a controversial subject lately, causing the world’s leading health experts to plead for a tax on the sugary, health detrimental drink. Soda has been shown to increase weight gain, and the high fructose corn syrup and aspartame have both shown negative health effects.
Recent research from Consumer Reports shows that soda may even be linked to cancer.
Now, new research from Boston University shows that excess sugar, especially fructose from sugary beverages like soda may damage the brain.
The research team used data from the Framingham Heart Study and found that people who drink soda often have a greater risk of poor memory, smaller brain volume, and a smaller hippocampus, which is the area of the brain responsible for learning and memory.
Diet soda did not fare any better. The researchers found that those who drank soda daily had almost three times a higher risk of dementia and stroke.
“These studies are not the be-all and end-all, but it’s strong data and a very strong suggestion,” says Sudha Seshadri, a professor of neurology at Boston University School of Medicine (MED) and a faculty member at BU’s Alzheimer’s Disease Center, who is senior author on both papers. “It looks like there is not very much of an upside to having sugary drinks, and substituting the sugar with artificial sweeteners doesn’t seem to help.”
“Maybe good old-fashioned water is something we need to get used to,” she adds.
There are so many reasons to avoid soda.
If these reasons are not enough to make you never drink soda again, here’s one more. According to a new Swedish study, people who drink more soda or other sugary drinks have a higher risk of developing rare cancers like gallbladder and liver cancers.
Another massive study has linked diet soda to increased risk of heart attack and stroke.
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REFERENCES:
1. “Sweetened Beverage Consumption and Risk of Biliary Tract and Gallbladder Cancer in a Prospective Study.” JNCI: Jnl of National Cancer Institute. JNCI: Jnl of National Cancer Institute, n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2017.
2. “Massive 10-Year Study Has Linked Diet Soda To Heart Attacks And Stroke.” The Hearty Soul. The Hearty Soul, 07 Dec. 2016. Web. 21 Apr. 2017.
3. “Is Soda Bad for Your Brain? (And Is Diet Soda Worse?).” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2017.
4. “Sugar- and Artificially Sweetened Beverages and the Risks of Incident Stroke and Dementia.” Stroke. American Heart Association, Inc., 01 Jan. 2017. Web. 22 Apr. 2017.
5. “Sugary Beverage Intake and Preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease in the Community.” Alzheimer’s & Dementia. Alzheimer’s Association, n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2017.
