Objective: To estimate the association between regular consumption of sweetened soft drinks, natural fruit juice, and coconut water with metabolic syndrome (MetS).
Methods: This was a cross-sectional study including men and women aged 35-74 years from the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil) Study, excluding patients with type 2 diabetes. The main explanatory variables were beverage consumption and the outcome variable was metabolic syndrome (Adult Treatment Panel III).
Results: After adjustments, a daily intake of 250 ml of soft drink increased the chance of metabolic syndrome (odds ratio [OR] = 1.95; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.60-2.38). There was no association between coconut water and MetS. Moderate consumption of fruit juices has low odds of MetS compared to no consumption.
Conclusion: Our results add evidence to potential negative effects of sweetened soft drinks on cluster metabolic abnormalities in middle-income countries.
Keywords: metabolic syndrome; obesity; sugar-sweetened soft drinks intake.