Sweetened Soft Drinks Consumption Is Associated with Metabolic Syndrome: Cross-sectional Analysis from the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil)

Abstract

Objective: To estimate the association between regular consumption of sweetened soft drinks, natural fruit juice, and coconut water with metabolic syndrome (MetS).

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study including men and women aged 35–74 years from the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil) Study, excluding patients with type 2 diabetes. The main explanatory variables were beverage consumption and the outcome variable was metabolic syndrome (Adult Treatment Panel III).

Results: After adjustments, a daily intake of 250 ml of soft drink increased the chance of metabolic syndrome (odds ratio [OR] = 1.95; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.60–2.38). There was no association between coconut water and MetS. Moderate consumption of fruit juices has low odds of MetS compared to no consumption.

Conclusion: Our results add evidence to potential negative effects of sweetened soft drinks on cluster metabolic abnormalities in middle-income countries.

Key words:

• sugar-sweetened soft drinks intake
• metabolic syndrome
• obesity

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

GVM, MCMB, IMB and SMB thank CNPq and GVM thanks FAPEMIG for the grant.

Funding

The study is supported by the Brazilian Ministry of Health (Department of Science and Technology) and Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (FINEP, Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos), grant nos. 01 06 0010.00, 01 06 0212.00, 01 06 0300.00, 01 06 0278.00, 01 06 0115.00, and 01 06 0071.00 and CNPq (the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development).