Ma J, et al. – In this cross–sectional analysis, the authors examined whether habitual sugar–sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption and diet soda intakes are differentially associated with deposition of body fat. Daily consumers of SSBs had a 10% higher absolute visceral adipose tissue (VAT) volume and a 15% greater VAT–to–SAT ratio compared with nonconsumers, whereas consumption of diet soda was not associated with either volume or distribution of VAT.
J Nutr. 2014 Jun 18. pii: jn.113.188599. [Epub ahead of print]
Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption Is Associated with Abdominal Fat Partitioning in Healthy Adults.
Ma J1, Sloan M2, Fox CS3, Hoffmann U4, Smith CE5, Saltzman E6, Rogers GT1, Jacques PF1, McKeown NM7.
Abstract
Abdominal adiposity, particularly visceral adipose tissue (VAT), is independently linked to the pathogenesis of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Emerging evidence suggests that greater intake of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) may be associated with abnormal fat accumulation in VAT. We examined whether habitual SSB consumption and diet soda intakes are differentially associated with deposition of body fat. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis using previously collected data in 2596 middle-aged adults (1306 men and 1290 women) from the Framingham Heart Study Offspring and Third Generation cohorts. VAT and abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) were measured using multidetector computed tomography. Habitual intake of SSBs and diet soda was assessed by a validated food frequency questionnaire. We observed that SSB consumption was positively associated with VAT after adjustment for SAT and other potential confounders (P-trend < 0.001). We observed an inverse association between SSB consumption and SAT (P-trend = 0.04) that persisted after additional adjustment for VAT (P-trend < 0.001). Higher SSB consumption was positively associated with VAT-to-SAT ratio (P-trend < 0.001). No significant association was found between diet soda consumption and either VAT or VAT-to-SAT ratio, but diet soda was positively associated with SAT (P-trend < 0.001). Daily consumers of SSBs had a 10% higher absolute VAT volume and a 15% greater VAT-to-SAT ratio compared with nonconsumers, whereas consumption of diet soda was not associated with either volume or distribution of VAT.
© 2014 American Society for Nutrition.