What the beverage industry doesn’t want you to know about sugary drinks and premature death:

Roughly 180,000 deaths worldwide are linked to sugary drink consumption.(1)

A new study found that drinking a 20-ounce sugary drink a day can age you as much as smoking cigarettes.(2)

Without careful management, diabetes can lead to complications such as: blindness, amputations, kidney failure, liver disease, heart attacks, strokes, cancer, and death.(3)(4)

Diabetes cost the United States an estimated $245 billion in 2012, with $176 billion in direct medical costs and $69 billion in indirect costs such as lost productivity, disability and premature death.(5)

Youth lead the conversation

The Bigger Picture Campaign is a collaboration between Youth Speaks Inc. and the University of California, San Francisco's Center for Vulnerable Populations designed to combat the rising epidemic of type 2 diabetes by empowering youth to change the conversation about the disease, and work to change the social and environmental factors that have led to its spread. Watch this video now to see The Bigger Picture in action.

Sources:

  1. http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/roughly-180000-deaths-worldwide-linked-to-sugary-drink-consumption/
  2. Leung, C. W., Laraia, B. A., Needham, B. L., Rehkopf, D. H., Adler, N. E., Lin, J., … & Epel, E. S. (2014). Soda and Cell Aging: Associations Between Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption and Leukocyte Telomere Length in Healthy Adults From the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. American journal of public health, 104(12), 2425-2431.
  3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  National Diabetes Statistics Report, 2014. http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/pubs/statsreport14.htm.  Accessed June 23, 2014.
  4. Giovannucci E, Harlan D, Archer M, et.al.  Diabetes and Cancer – A Consensus Report. Diabetes Care. 2010; 33(7): 1674-1685
  5. Centers for Disease Control.  National Diabetes Statistics Report, 2014. http://www.cdc.gov/diabeteS/pubs/statsreport14/national-diabetes-report-web.pdf, Accessed June 23, 2014.