Sugar-sweetened or artificially-sweetened beverage consumption, physical activity, and risk of cardiovascular disease in adults: a prospective cohort study

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  • Lorena S. Pacheco
  • Deirdre K. Tobias
  • Yanping Li
  • Shilpa N. Bhupathiraju
  • Walter C. Willett
  • David S. Ludwig
  • Cara B. Ebbeling
  • Danielle E. Haslam
  • Jean Philippe Drouin-Chartier
  • Frank B. Hu
  • Guasch Ferre, Marta

Background: Whether physical activity could mitigate the adverse impacts of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) or artificially sweetened beverages (ASBs) on incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains uncertain. Objectives: This study aimed to examine the independent and joint associations between SSB or ASB consumption and physical activity and risk of CVD, defined as fatal and nonfatal coronary artery disease and stroke, in adults from 2 United States-based prospective cohort studies. Methods: Cox proportional hazards models were used to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs between SSB or ASB intake and physical activity with incident CVD among 65,730 females in the Nurses’ Health Study (1980–2016) and 39,418 males in the Health Professional's Follow-up Study (1986–2016), who were free from chronic diseases at baseline. SSBs and ASBs were assessed every 4-y and physical activity biannually. Results: A total of 13,269 CVD events were ascertained during 3,001,213 person-years of follow-up. Compared with those who never/rarely consumed SSBs or ASBs, the HR for CVD for participants consuming ≥2 servings/d was 1.21 (95% CI: 1.12, 1.32; P-trend < 0.001) for SSBs and 1.03 (95% CI: 0.97, 1.09; P-trend = 0.06) for those consuming ≥2 servings/d of ASBs. The HR for CVD per 1 serving increment of SSB per day was 1.18 (95% CI: 1.10, 1.26) and 1.12 (95% CI: 1.04, 1.20) for participants meeting and not meeting physical activity guidelines (≥7.5 compared with <7.5 MET h/wk), respectively. Compared with participants who met physical activity guidelines and never/rarely consumed SSBs, the HR for CVD was 1.47 (95% CI: 1.37, 1.57) for participants not meeting physical activity guidelines and consuming ≥2 servings/wk of SSBs. No significant associations were observed for ASB when stratified by physical activity. Conclusions: Higher SSB intake was associated with CVD risk regardless of physical activity levels. These results support current recommendations to limit the intake of SSBs even for physically active individuals.

Original languageEnglish
Book seriesAmerican Journal of Clinical Nutrition
Volume119
Issue number3
Pages (from-to)669-681
Number of pages13
ISSN0002-9165
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 American Society for Nutrition

    Research areas

  • coronary heart disease, diet soda, exercise, public health, soda, stroke

ID: 385269303