Wondering about super sweet soda? Some recent studies have found that sugar-sweetened drinks are related to a higher risk of type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance in middle or older aged populations, but there hasn’t been any work on these drinks and pregnancy.
Women who drink 5 (or more) servings of sugar sweetened cola a week before conceiving a child were found to have an increased chance of developing diabetes during pregnancy according to some new research appearing in the December 2009 issue of Diabetes Care.
Known to the medical community as gestational diabetes, glucose intolerance during pregnancy increases the chance of lifelong diabetes in the mother, and can also have permanent effects on the babies’ major organs like brain and heart.
Almost 7% of all pregnant women in the U.S. are diagnosed with this condition during pregnancy, often during their third trimester.
“Previous studies have shown an association with other chronic metabolic problems,” explains study author Dr. Liwei Chen, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center. “This is the first to show an increased risk among pregnant women.”
Working with researchers out of the Harvard School of Public Health and the U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development the team studied a decade of medical records on 13,475 women from the Nurses’ Health Study II.
After accounting for known risk factors for this form of diabetes, the researchers found that women who drank more than 5 servings of sugar sweetened colas had a 22% higher risk of gestational diabetes than women who had less than one serving a month.
There are several explanations for the association seen in the research. One of the leading theories is that sugar rich foods or drinks can overload the body with glucose, and this impairs the function of the cells of the pancreas where insulin that metabolizes glucose is made.
There was no association in the research for consumption of other sugar sweetened drinks, or the artificially sweetened variety. Researchers can’t say why only cola drinks are linked to the increased risk.
Perhaps the popularity of these types of sweetened drinks in the U.S. might account for this. “We need other studies to confirm our findings,” Chen agrees. “We plan to study other populations, and we hope that other investigators start such studies.”
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Sodas Linked To Gestational Diabetes Continued…
In the meantime, you might want to cut back on the sugary colas, especially if you’re planning a pregnancy anytime soon.
As you might expect, the Washington-based American Beverage Association is skeptical of the findings. Soft drink intake has more than doubled (from 4.1% up to 9.8%) between the years 1977 and 2001 among 19 to 39 year old Americans, and this age was found to have the highest rate of soft drink consumption.
Spokeswoman for the ABA, Maureen Storey points out in a statement, “As with all epidemiological studies, the data do not show a cause-and-effect relationship.”
Obviously the key to a healthy pregnancy, safe delivery and rosy-cheeked baby is getting good medical care and following your healthcare provider’s advice on living a healthy lifestyle – before and during your pregnancy.
Eating well, by choosing a variety of healthy foods, as well as getting regular exercise and plenty of rest are all also important to you and your baby.
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