Participants in a study group who drank at least one sugar-sweetened beverage every day showed the greatest increase in visceral fat over the next six years.
But the new findings suggest a "mechanism" behind that, said lead researcher Jiantao Ma, of the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Framingham Heart Study and Population Sciences Branch.
The study results are based on 1,003 middle-aged adults taking part in a larger study on heart health. The researchers used CT scans to measure each participant's levels of visceral fat, at the study's start and again six years later.
At the outset, 13 percent of the study group said they drank at least one sugar-sweetened beverage every day. And on average, those men and women showed the greatest increase in visceral fat over the next six years.
Compared with people who never had sugary drinks, daily consumers accumulated about 27 percent more visceral fat, the investigators found.
Other less-than-healthful habits
That does not prove that sugary drinks, per se, were the culprit behind the fat gain, Ma said.
His team did account for other factors, such as people's age, exercise habits, body weight and daily calorie intake. And it's difficult to pin the blame on one diet habit, Ma said.
Lichtenstein agreed that people who drink a lot of sugary beverages probably have other less-than-healthful habits.
"People who consume a lot of added sugar also tend to eat fewer vegetables, get less exercise, and be more likely to smoke," she said.
Sugar-sweetened drinks are just one part of that larger picture, Lichtenstein said. Still, she added, cutting out those beverages is an "easy" way to drop added sugar from your diet.
"This is one way to make a positive shift in your lifestyle," Lichtenstein said. "And it's not hard. For every sugar-sweetened beverage out there, there's a non-caloric option.".
According to the AHA, one 12-ounce can of regular soda contains about 132 calories' worth of added sugar.
The findings come on the heels of the latest U.S. dietary recommendations, which were released. For the first time, Ma said, the guidelines take specific aim at added sugars encouraging Americans to get less than 10 percent of their daily calories from those sweeteners.
These latest findings support that advice, Ma said.
The researchers found no connection between diet soda intake and visceral fat accumulation. (They had data only on diet soda, and not other calorie-free drinks.)
That's reassuring, according to Lichtenstein, because some past studies have found a connection between diet soda and ill health effects, such as an increased type 2 diabetes risk. But that, she said, probably reflects the fact that many people start drinking diet beverages because they are overweight or have other diabetes risk factors.
"Those previous diet-soda findings are not supported by this study," Lichtenstein said.
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