November 14/Washington/PRNewswire -- In response to "Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption and Incident Cardiovascular Risk Factors: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis," an abstract presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2011, the American Beverage Association issued the following statement:
"This type of study cannot show that drinking sugar-sweetened beverages causes increased risk for cardiovascular disease. It simply looks at associations between the two, which could be the result of numerous other confounding factors. The American Heart Association states that two of the major risk factors for heart disease are increasing age and family history of cardiovascular disease. Yet this study, which looked at people ages 45-84, did not control for either factor. Furthermore, participants who consumed two or more sugar-sweetened beverages per day at the beginning of the study already had a number of risk factors for cardiovascular disease. And while overweight or obesity are known cardiovascular disease risk factors, the evidence that one type of food or beverage causes heart disease simply is not there.