A new study has found that drinking more coffee, tea or plain water may lower the risk of premature death from any cause by around 25% for individuals with type 2 diabetes. However, the study also found that drinking more sugar-sweetened beverages raised the risk of heart disease by 25% and the risk of dying from a heart attack or another cardiovascular event by 29%. This is particularly concerning, as research has shown that cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of death for people with type 2 diabetes.
The study, published in the journal BMJ, analysed the dietary habits of almost 15,500 adults with a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes who were part of the Nurses’ Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study in the United States. The respondents were predominantly women, with an average age of 61. Every two to four years over an average of 18 years, participants answered questions about their consumption of eight different types of beverages, including artificially sweetened drinks, coffee, fruit juice, low-fat and whole milk, plain water, tea, and sugar-sweetened beverages.
The study defined a high intake of coffee (caffeinated and decaffeinated) as four cups a day, tea as two cups a day, water as five glasses a day and low-fat milk as two glasses a day. A low amount for each beverage was less than one cup or glass a month.
The analysis showed that those who drank the most sugar-sweetened beverages had a 20% increased risk of death from any cause compared with those who consumed the least. Dying from a cardiovascular-related event rose by 29%, the study found. The risk of an early death rose by 8% for each additional serving a day. In contrast, consuming high amounts of coffee, tea, water and low-fat milk was associated with lower mortality when compared with drinking a low amount. There was a 26% lower risk of early death associated with drinking coffee, 21% for tea, 23% for plain water and 12% for low-fat milk.
Looking specifically at cardiovascular disease, the data showed that a higher intake of coffee was associated with an 18% reduced risk of heart disease. Drinking low-fat milk reduced the chances of having heart issues by 12%, the study found.
The study also found that there was some good news for individuals who were die-hard drinkers of sugar-sweetened beverages before they were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. When those sweet drinks were replaced with coffee or artificial no-calorie drinks after the diagnosis, the risk of an early death dropped significantly. When both sugar-sweetened and artificial no-calorie drinks were replaced with coffee, tea, plain water and low-fat milk, there was an even lower risk of heart disease and death from any cause.
The study was observational, so the findings cannot be viewed through a lens of cause and effect. However, the authors “carried out detailed, repeated collection of dietary data, followed-up participants for nearly two decades, applied comprehensive adjustments for confounding factors, and conducted 12 different sensitivity analyses,” said Nita Forouhi, program leader and investigator of nutritional epidemiology at the UK’s University of Cambridge in an accompanying editorial.
“The case for avoiding sugar-sweetened beverages is compelling,” she said. “Choice of beverage clearly matters.”