Drinking two sweetened drinks per day could double the risk of diabetes

Drinking two or more sweetened drinks per day could greatly increase your risk of diabetes, according to new research. In fact, it could double it.

In the study, two or more 200-milliliter servings of sweetened drinks, consumed daily, were found to double the risk of developing the condition. Given that standard 12-ounce drinks cans are more than 300-milliliters, this means just 1 and a half of these drinks per day could double your risk.

But more importantly, the level of risk was the same regardless of whether the drinks used sugar or artificial sweeteners. So choosing the diet option may make no difference, as both types were seen to result in two times the risk of having diabetes.

"Not all studies have been able to look at sugary and artificially beverages separately," said Josefin Edwall Löfvenborg, a nutritionist at the Karolinksa Intitute in Sweden, "(but) it's getting more and more established that soft drinks increase risk of type II diabetes."