Health Issues Linked to Sugar Heavy Soft Drinks

Obesity, diabetes, and heart disease are just some of the health issues linked to sugar heavy drinks.  The government's guidelines, produced jointly from the Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Agriculture, were released Jan. 7.

Among the key recommendations, consume less than 10 percent of calories per day from added sugars.  The Mayo Clinic describes these as sugars and syrups added to foods during processing.

The top culprits are desserts, sodas and sports drinks, where they boost flavor but add more calories.  Reducing sugars added to sugar sweetened drinks by 40 percent during a five year period could prevent 1.5 million cases of people becoming overweight and obese.

Researchers note this could also avoid about 300,000 cases of obesity related type 2 diabetes.