> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.foodconsumer.org/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Sugar sweetened soft drinks, diet soda again linked to type 2 diabetes
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/sugar_artificial_sweeteners_type_2_diabetes_0609131244/
- Published: 2013-06-09T13:43:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T16:15:40.000Z
- Description: Harvard researchers followed about 114,000 nurses and health professionals for more than two decades. Each daily serving of sugar-sweetened beverages was tied to up to 23 percent higher risk of type 2 diabetes; each serving of coffee was tied to up to 8 percent lower risk.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Food, Nutrition, #vivvo-import

Sunday June 9, 2013 (foodconsumer.org) -- A new study in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests that drinking sugar sweetened beverages (SSB) and artificially sweetened diet soda increases the risk for type 2 diabetes mellitus while drinking coffee, caffeinated or otherwise, can lower the risk.

S. N. Bhupathiraju from Departments of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, MA, USA and colleagues conducted the study and found drinking SSB may increase the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus by up to 23% while drinking coffee lowers the risk by up to 8% per serving.

Previous studies show consumption of caffeinated beverages such as coffee and tea has been correlated with a reduced risk for type 2 diabetes mellitus.

For their study, the researchers analyzed data from the Nurses' Health Study (NHS, 1984-2008) with 74,749 women involved and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS, 1986-2008) with 39,059 men enrolled. All participants were free of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer at the beginning of the studies. During 24 years of follow-up in the NHS and 22 years of follow-up in the HPFS, 7,370 and 2,865 new cases of type 2 diabetes mellitus, respectively.

After adjustment for major lifestyle and dietary risk factors, each serving of SSB with caffeine or caffeine free was associated with 13% or 11% increased risk for type 2 diabetes mellitus in the NHS. And in the HPFS, the increase was 16% and 23% respectively.

After adjustment for other factors, each serving of caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee was associated with 8% and 8% reduced risk for type 2 diabetes mellitus, respectively in the NHS and 4% and 7% reduced risk, respectively, in the HPFS.

One observation that is consistent with other studies was that each serving of a caffeine free artificially sweetened beverage or diet soda was 6% increased risk for type 2 diabetes mellitus.

In case of tea consumption, each serving of caffeinated tea was found associated with a 5% reduced type 2 diabetes mellitus only in the NHS.

The researchers concluded "Irrespective of the caffeine content, SSB intake was associated with a higher risk of T2D, and coffee intake was associated with a lower risk of T2D (type 2 diabetes mellitus)." (reporting by Jimmy Downs)

A similar study was reported here: [/diet\_soda\_type\_2\_diabetes\_mellitus\_0605130905/](https://www.foodconsumer.org/diet%5Fsoda%5Ftype%5F2%5Fdiabetes%5Fmellitus%5F0605130905/)