Do you drink sugary drinks often? Things like coke, energy or sports drinks, fruit drinks, sweetened coffee or sweetened tea have a lot of sugar are popular choices, but recently researchers found that drinking sugar-sweetened beverages every day is associated with an increase in a type of fat called visceral fat.
Visceral fat or “deep” fat is located around the waist and the stomach and wraps around a number of important internal organs such as the liver, pancreas and intestines. Visceral fat affects how our hormones function and is thought to play a larger role in insulin resistance – which may boost Type 2 diabetes and heart disease risk, according to the American Heart Association.
A study sponsored by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute looked at 1,000 people from ages of 19 to 72 who volunteered to have CT scans to see how much body fat they had in their abdomen. They also filled out food diaries and after six years, they had another CT scan. The researchers found that almost everyone had gained weight, but those who drank sugary drinks every day gained the most and had 207 percent more visceral fat.
These findings are not necessarily surprising; visceral fat negatively impacts your overall health. Instead of drinking sugary drinks, health care providers recommend drinking regular or seltzer water, skim or 1 percent plain milk, and unsweetened coffee and teas. Make sure to drink water the most regularly.