Drinking two sodas a day increases women's health risks

Women may want to take a pass on soft drinks and opt for plain water instead. Drinking two or more sugar-sweetened beverages a day may not pack on the pounds, but they can increase a woman’s waistline and increase her risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

A study of middle-aged and older women was presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2011. It compared women who drank two or more sugar-sweetened beverages a day, to those who had one drink or less a day.

Drinking dangers
Drinking two or more sugar-sweetened drinks such as soda or flavoured water containing sugar, resulted in a greater likelihood of women:

• increasing  their waistlines
• developing high triglycerides
• developing impaired fasting glucose levels
• increasing their risk of diabetes

Surprisingly, women didn’t gain large amounts of weight, but the risk factors occurred even without weight gain.

Interestingly, men didn’t experience these effects. Researchers hypothesize that because women don’t require as many calories as men, each calorie has a greater effect. Further research is planned to figure out how these effects occur in women even though they don’t gain weight.