Drinking Cola Before Pregnancy Increases Risks of Gestational Diabetes, Researchers Say

Are you planning on getting pregnant? Congratulations, now lay off the cola.

A new U.S. study finds women who drink five or more servings of sugary cola per week before they conceive are at greater risks of developing gestational diabetes during pregnancy, according to a HealthDay news report.

The study is the first to show a link between soda consumption and increased risks of chronic metabolic problems, such as gestational diabetes, said the researchers from Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans.

Gestational diabetes, which is also called glucose intolerance during pregnancy, is a common complication associated with pregnancy. Women who develop it are at increased risks of suffering from lifelong diabetes and the condition also can have permanent effects on the unborn child, the researchers said in their study, which appears in the December issue of Diabetes Care.

The university researchers joined forces with scientists from the Harvard School of Public Health and the U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to study the medical records of 13,475 women who were part of another study.

The study found women who had more than five servings every week of sugar-sweetened cola beverages before conceiving were 22 percent more likely to have gestational diabetes compared to women who drank less than one serving of cola every month.

The increased risk was seen only in women who drank sugary cola and was not associated with women who drank other sugar-sweetened beverages or artificially sweetened drinks, the study found. Researchers are not exactly sure why the gestational diabetes risk appears to be limited to sugar-sweetened cola, HealthDay news reports.

Further scientific study is needed to confirm the findings, the researchers said. In the meantime, the study team said women should reduce their intake of sugar-sweetened cola and other sugary drinks, whether or not they plan on becoming pregnant, since soda consumption also is a leading cause of obesity and other chronic medical problems.

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