Calories from sugary drinks particularly harmful to health

Are certain calories more harmful than others??

Most people may well assume that all calories are basically the same. This is not quite true though. Researchers have now found that calories from sugar-sweetened beverages are particularly unhealthy and harmful compared to the same number of calories in other foods.

Scientists at the University of California, Davis found in their recent research that calories from sugary drinks are more harmful than calories from other sources. The physicians published the results of their study in the English language journal "Obesity Reviews".

Sugary drinks contain a lot of calories. These calories seem to be more harmful to the body than the calories from other foods. (Image: Jag_cz / fotolia.com)

Are calories all the same??

As a general rule, a calorie is a calorie and excess calories from each source are likely to increase weight and increase the risk of disease. However, in reality it seems a little different.

Avoid consuming these drinks

Noteworthy is the warning that calories from sugar-sweetened beverages such as soft drinks, liqueurs, fruit juices, energy drinks and other non-alcoholic drinks with added sugars can be particularly bad for your health compared to the same number of calories in other drinks or foods, scientists say.

Sugary drinks are cardiometabolic risk factors

"Our research stream with extensive experience in nutrition and metabolism concludes that sugar-sweetened beverages represent particular cardiometabolic risk factors compared to other beverages or foods," said study author Kimber Stanhope of the University of California, Davis.

Calories from bread and potatoes are healthier

Essentially, the study reveals how sugar-sweetened beverages are not particularly healthy because of the way they are processed by our body, especially when compared to starchy foods such as bread or potatoes, the doctors explain.

Fructose especially harmful?

The harmful drinks are sweetened with certain sugars: either fructose, sucrose, a 50/50 mixture of the simpler sugar glucose and fructose or high fructose corn syrup, a mixture of glucose and fructose with a higher fraction of fructose. It appears to be fructose in these drinks, which accelerates cardiometabolic risk factors because it is processed by the liver, the authors suggest.

Increased health risk regardless of the lifestyle

The health risk of sugar-sweetened beverages increases, even when those concerned are actually eating a well-balanced diet that burns the calories they eat and drink through their physical activity. In other words, while these people will not gain weight, they will still hurt their health. The results are remarkable because the beverage industry often claims that consuming sugary drinks has no negative impact when energy intake is otherwise balanced, the researchers say.

Sweetener also harmful?

But sweeteners such as aspartame are also responsible for weight gain and poor cardiometabolic health. However, there are no reliable studies of people who can substantiate this claim.

Which nutritional patterns are healthy?

The study shows how challenging nutritional science can be. It's basically impossible to create studies that can explain so many variables. However, a healthy nutritional pattern, consisting of minimally processed whole grains, fruits, vegetables and healthy fats, clearly promotes health more than the typical Western diet. (As)