Sugar Beverages

Drinking two or more sweetened beverages daily may boost diabetes and heart risks — even in slim people.
Think your soda habit is OK because you’re thin? Guess again. Drinking two or more sugar-sweetened beverages a day may boost the risk of diabetes and heart disease, even in people without weight issues. That’s according to research presented at the American Heart Association’s annual meeting. Compared with those who drank less than one soft drink a day, middle-aged women who consumed at least two soft drinks daily were nearly four times as likely to have high triglycerides and impaired blood sugar levels — a condition known as prediabetes. Even though the study found that those who drank more soda weren’t necessarily heavier, they did have more abdominal fat. Belly fat is more dangerous than other types of fat because it produces hormones and other substances linked to a host of chronic diseases, such as high blood pressure and diabetes.
Drink water or barely sweetened beverages, like homemade iced tea or seltzer with fruit juice, instead.