A study published in the journal Circulation has estimated the number of global deaths per year that are associated with sugar-sweetened drinks, what diseases sugar-sweetened deaths are linked to and where in the world these deaths are occurring. They estimated that 184,000 deaths per year are associated with consuming sugar-sweetened drinks and when they broke these numbers down by disease area most of the sugar-sweetened drink deaths were associated with diabetes  (133,000 death per year).  Cardiovascular disease was associated with 45,000 of these deaths and cancers 6,450.

The study also found that the majority of sugar-sweetened drink deaths occur in middle-income countries  (71%) whilst 24% of these deaths occur in high-income countries and 5% in low-income countries.

This is a very important study as it yet again provides more evidence of the effect of sugar on our health. It shows the clear need for all of us to reduce our sugar consumption and this is particularly important for the black community who are 3 times more likely to have diabetes and therefore are more likely to be affected by sugar-sweetened drink death.

An interesting two-week diet swap experiment has been carried out by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh showing the damage a Western diet can cause to our gut. This study recruited  20 volunteers from the USA and 20 from rural Africa and each group was asked to switch diets for two weeks. The African group were asked to eat more junk food (burgers and fries) whilst the American volunteers were asked to eat a low-fat, high-fibre diet. Even though the study was quite a short one the impact of the diet swap was quite significant with the American group showing less bowel inflammation while the African volunteer’s bowel health declined.

This was an interesting study demonstrating the power of our diet in affecting our health, and in this case our gut health and our  risk of developing bowel (colon) cancer with Dr Stephen O’Keefe, from the University of Pittsburgh, saying:

“In just two weeks, a change in diet from a Westernised composition to a traditional African high-fibre, low-fat diet reduced these biomarkers of cancer risk, indicating that it is likely never too late to modify the risk of colon cancer.”