Research

Mixed

High consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages is associated with adverse changes in blood biomarkers, including increased triglycerides, inflammatory markers (CRP, IL-6), and decreased HDL and leptin.

Regular sugary drink consumption worsens your blood chemistry even if you don't have diagnosed heart disease. It raises inflammation and bad fats while lowering good fats. This happens gradually and contributes to long-term heart risk.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Intake of sugar-sweetened but not artificially sweetened beverages was significantly associated with increased plasma triglycerides, C-reactive protein, interleukin-6, and tumor necrosis factor receptors 1 and 2 and decreased high-density lipoprotein, lipoprotein(a), and leptin (P<0.02).
Lawrence de Koning et al. · Circulation · 2012

Why this rating

Cross-sectional analysis of biomarkers in a large subset of the cohort, adjusted for confounders.

Source

Sweetened Beverage Consumption, Incident Coronary Heart Disease, and Biomarkers of Risk in Men

Lawrence de Koning et al. · Circulation · 2012

DOI 10.1161/circulationaha.111.067017

cohort · n=42883Cited 506×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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