London - Drinking just two cans of fizzy drink a day raises your risk of liver disease, according to a study.
Scientists found people who drink more than one sugar-sweetened drink such as cola or lemonade a day were more likely to have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) than those who said they didn’t drink any fizzy drinks.
And they warned that sugary drinks could also be linked to diabetes and heart disease
However, they found low-sugar diet versions do not seem to have the same damaging effects.
The team from Tufts University, Massachusetts, studied 2 634 middle-aged men and women, who all underwent a scan to measure how much fat they had in their liver.
Even after age, BMI and lifestyle factors such as diet, smoking and alcohol intake were taken into account, there was still a higher prevalence of NAFLD among those who reported drinking more than one fizzy or other sugary fruit drink a day, the study reported in the Journal of Hepatology.
Sugar-sweetened drinks are a major source of fructose – a fruit sugar suspected of increasing the risk of NAFLD because, unlike glucose, it can only be broken down by cells in the liver.
Daily Mail