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Soft drink consumption and unhealthy diet

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 68, page 408 (2014)Cite this article

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Recent studies have demonstrated that the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, known as soft drinks, contributes to the development of obesity in both adolescents and adults.1, 2, 3, 4 This, in turn, may increase the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

We recently investigated the dietary habits of 929 nondiabetic adult residents in Palermo, Italy, a city in the Mediterranean Basin.5 Semiquantitative habitual intakes of different foods were assessed with the Food Frequency Questionnaire. With an a posteriori approach we applied a cluster analysis for identifying dietary patterns.6 This procedure is based on the intercorrelations among food groups or nutrients, and is not biased because it does not require as a starting point any technical decision on which foods or nutrients are or are not healthy. A diet that could be defined as unhealthy was identified in 21% of the cohort, and was characterized by high consumption of soft drinks, fried foods, seed oils, cured meats, butter, red meat and sweets. Thirty-four percent of the cohort exhibited a dietary pattern that resembled the Mediterranean diet, characterized by high intakes of fruit, milk and cheese, olive oil, vegetables, pasta and bread. Intermediate habits characterized the remaining 45%. The average consumption of soft drinks in the unhealthy versus Mediterranean dietary habits group was of 6.1 versus 1.1 drinks/week (P<0.0001). Interestingly, despite being significantly older, the Mediterranean diet group did not have a different prevalence of asymptomatic carotid atherosclerosis (intima-media thickness ⩾0.9 mm and/or presence of plaques) and was independently associated with less insulin resistance.

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  1. Dipartimento Biomedico di Medicina Interna e Specialistica (DIBIMIS), Laboratorio di Nutrizione Clinica, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy

    S Buscemi

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Correspondence to S Buscemi.

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Buscemi, S. Soft drink consumption and unhealthy diet. Eur J Clin Nutr 68, 408 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2013.258

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