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Story Updated: Mar 21, 2013
New study links sugar-sweetened beverages to tens of thousands of deaths each year.
No matter where you stand on efforts to ban super-sized sugary drinks a new study released by the American Heart Association is sure to get your attention.
The study concludes that about 180,000 deaths around the world each year are associated with sugar-sweetened sodas, sports drinks and fruit drinks!
Using data from the 2010 Global Burden of Diseases study, researchers linked the intake of sugary drinks to 133-thousand diabetes deaths, 44 thousand cardiovascular-related deaths and 6 thousand cancer deaths.
Sugary beverages contribute to weight gain... which increases the risk of developing diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers.
About 25,000 deaths in the U.S. were associated with sugary drinks.
Latin America and the Caribbean regions had the most diabetes deaths related to the beverages.
What country registered the lowest number of deaths related to sugar-sweetened sodas, sports drinks and fruit drinks? Japan, which also had the lowest per-capita consumption of the products.