A new study that is sure to make Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other health nannies wet their britches in thanks is out:
New research finds that the consumption of sugary drinks and sodas contributes to about 180,000 obesity-related deaths around the world — including the deaths of about 25,000 adult Americans — each year.
According to a new study presented on Tuesday at a meeting of the American Heart Association, one out of every 100 obesity-related deaths around the world can be tied to sugary drinks, which directly exacerbate health conditions like diabetes, heart diseases, and cancer. Specifically, the over-consumption of those beverages increased global deaths from diabetes by 133,000, from cardiovascular disease by 44,000 and from cancer by 6,000.
So, 180,000 out of what, 6 billion? And 25,000 in the US in a population of 300 million.
Can you say “statistically irrelevant”? I knew you could.
But the “if our draconian measures can save even one life” crowd will see this as the means to more control, just watch. It’s just predictable (your health is now a “growth area” for control freaks and nannies).
Don’t believe me?
The experts who contributed to the study explained that’s a big issue because those calories don’t provide any nutritional value, and policymakers should focus on helping encourage Americans to cut back:
“One of the problems of sugar-sweetened beverages is that we don’t seem to compensate as well for the calories as we do for solid foods,” [Rachel K. Johnson, a professor of medicine and nutrition at the University of Vermont] said. “In other words, when we consume sugar-sweetened beverages we don’t reduce the amount of food we consume.”
Johnson cautioned the study didn’t prove cause and effect, just that there was an association between sugared-drink intake and death rates.
Singh, the study’s co-author, said that taxing sugary drinks in the same way as cigarettes, or limiting advertising or access, may help reduce usage.
“Our study shows that tens of thousands of deaths worldwide are caused by drinking sugary beverages and this should impel policy makers to make strong policies to reduce consumption of sugary beverages,” Singh said.
~McQ