All soft drinks, even without sugar, are linked to premature death according to a new study

One of the easiest ways to improve your health and longevity may be to eliminate soft drinks from your diet, even if they're sugar-free, according to a new study released recently.

The study published in JAMA Internal Medicinefound that drinking two or more cups of sugared or unsweetened soda (diet or zero) per day is associated with a higher risk of premature death from all causes.

For this study, about fifty International Agency for Research on Cancer researchers (International Center for Cancer Research) in Lyon (France), followed more than 451,000 adults from 10 European countries (none of whom had previously been diagnosed with cancer, diabetes, heart disease or stroke) for up to 19 years.

The researchers found that men and women who drank two or more cups of sugary drinks a day were more likely to die from it Gastrointestinal diseases affecting the liver, pancreas, intestines and appendix.

Meanwhile, daily consumption of the same amount of diet drinks was associated with an increased risk of death from them Cardiovascular diseases.

More generally, consumption of soft drinks (sweetened and unsweetened) was associated with higher blood pressure Parkinson's diseaseBut researchers found no link to a higher risk of cancer or a higher incidence of Alzheimer's disease.

We specify that this is an observational study and therefore is limited in that it shows association rather than causation. Its results should not be neglected, especially since they reinforce previous studies⁽¹⁾ Which suggests that soda may have a negative effect on health.

In March 2019, a study conducted by Harvard University showed⁽²⁾ It was found that drinking two or more sugary drinks daily increases the risk of premature death in women by 63% and by 29% in men. There was also a 31% increase in premature deaths from cardiovascular disease and a moderate association between consumption of sugary drinks and death from cancer.

In July 2019, a study was published in the British Medical Journal⁽³⁾ It found that adults in France who drank sugary soda or fruit juice daily (even in small amounts) had an increased risk of cancer.

However, researchers said daily soda consumption could also be an indicator of other unhealthy eating habits.

“In our study, consumers who drank a lot of soft drinks had a higher body mass index and were also more likely to be smokers,” lead researcher Neil Murphy said. “We made statistical corrections in our analyzes to account for BMI, smoking, and other mortality risk factors that may have skewed our results, but the associations remained positive.”

This is what the researcher himself announced inAmerican Journal of Managed Care However, the team does not have a “prevailing hypothesis about this relationship” and that more research into this association is needed.

“These results remain favorable for public health campaigns aimed at reducing soda consumption,” the researchers concluded in this study.