Study says high consumption of artificially sweetened drinks linked with early death

A high consumption of sugar-sweetened or artificially-sweetened drinks has a link to a higher risks of all-cause mortality, according to a group of researchers.
“We found that higher soft drink intake was associated with a greater risk of death from any cause regardless of whether sugar-sweetened or artificially-sweetened drinks were consumed,” said study senior author Neil Murphy from International Agency for Research on Cancer in France.
“Our results for sugar-sweetened soft drinks provide further support to limit consumption and to replace them with healthier beverages, preferably water,” Murphy said.
This study was published in the journal, JAMA Internal Medicine. For the study, approximately 452,000 men and women from 10 European countries participated.
The study concluded that consuming more than two glasses per day-- compared with less than one glass per month -- of soft drinks, sugar-sweetened soft drinks, and artificially-sweetened soft drinks was associated with a higher risk of death from all causes during an average follow-up of 16 years in which 41,693 deaths occurred.
According to the study, 43 percent died from cancers, 21.8 percent from circulatory diseases and 2.9 percent from digestive diseases.
The findings support public health initiatives to limit soft drink consumption.