Soft drinks linked to metabolic syndrome

If you love soft drinks, beware. A new study finds that middle-age adults who drank more than one soft drink daily, either diet or regular, have a 40 percent greater rate of either having or developing metabolic syndrome, according to data from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health.

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of conditions that increase the risk for heart disease. A person is considered to have metabolic syndrome if he or she has three or more of the following five risk factors: waist circumference greater than or equal to 35 inches for women or 40 inches for men, fasting blood glucose of greater than or equal to 100 mg/dL, triglycerides greater than or equal to 150 mg/dL; blood pressure greater than or equal to 135/85 mm Hg, and HDL "good" cholesterol below 40 mg/dL for men or below 50 mg/dL for women.

"Other studies have shown that the extra calories and sugar in soft drinks contribute to weight gain, and therefore heart disease risk," said Dr. Elizabeth G. Nabel, Director, NHLBI. "This study echoes those findings by extending the link to all soft drinks and the metabolic syndrome."

It is worth noting that dietary patterns are similar across drinkers of both regular and diet soft drinks.

"High soft drink consumption may in fact be a marker for metabolic syndrome risk, but more study is needed," said Dr. Ravi Dhingra, instructor in medicine, Harvard Medical School, and lead author. For more information, go to: www. nhlbi.nih.gov.