The SACN report review found: high levels of sugar consumption are associated with a greater risk of tooth decay; the higher the proportion of sugar in the diet, the greater the risk of high energy intake; drinking high ‑ sugar
beverages results in weight gain and increases in BMI in teenagers and children; and consuming too many high - sugar beverages increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
In this systematic review, the researchers investigate whether the disclosure of potential financial conflicts of interest (for example, research funding by a
beverage company) has influenced the
results of systematic reviews undertaken to examine the association between the consumption of highly lucrative sugar - sweetened
beverages (SSBs) and
weight gain or obesity.
Bray also discusses the fact that sweetened
beverages in general, as compared to sweeteners added to solid foods, have a greater tendency to cause
weight gain, citing a randomized, double - blind European study by Rabin and others, which found that drinking calorically sweetened
beverages resulted in greater
weight gain over the ten - week study than did drinking diet drinks.8 Since the
beverages in this study were sweetened with sucrose, Bray called for a second randomized controlled study to compare sucrose - and HFCS - sweetened
beverages.