Gulping Down Carbonated Drinks Regularly Increases Belly Fat

Consuming sugar-sweetened drinks daily can increase the abdominal fat in the body, revealed a new study.

Visceral fat or abdominal fat is the most dangerous form of fat as it stores inside many crucial internal organs like pancreas, kidney and liver. It also influences many diseases like cardiovascular, diabetes, cancer, etc.

‘Regular sugar-sweetened beverage intake was associated with an adverse change in both quality and quantity of visceral fat, whereas diet soda had no such association. ’

Researchers in the Framingham Heart Study, Massachusetts analyzed the amount of visceral fat or abdominal fat in 1,003 participants. Their habitual consumption of sugary drinks were assessed using a food questionnaire.

The participants were divided into four groups based on their daily, weekly, monthly and no beverage consumption. Researchers monitored them for a period of six years and the quality and quantity of visceral fat was measured using computed tomography (CT scan).

They found that VAT volume increased by 658 cm3, 649 cm3, 707 cm3, and 852 cm3 from non-consumers to daily consumers. But diet soda consumption did not have any influence on the abdominal adipose tissue.

Reference: Jiantao Ma, Caroline S. Fox, "Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption is Associated With Change of Visceral Adipose Tissue Over 6 Years of Follow-Up", Circulation. 2016; doi:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.115.018704

Source: Medindia