Sugar-Sweetened and Diet Beverages in Relation to Visceral Adipose Tissue

Abstract

Frequent sugar‐sweetened beverage (SSB) intake has been consistently associated with increased adiposity and cardio‐metabolic risk, whereas the association with diet beverages is more mixed. We examined how these beverages associate with regional abdominal adiposity measures, specifically visceral adipose tissue (VAT). In a cross‐sectional analysis of 791 non‐Hispanic white men and women aged 18–70 we examined how beverage consumption habits obtained from a food frequency questionnaire associate with overall and abdominal adiposity measures from MRI. With increasing frequency of SSB intake, we observed increases in waist circumference (WC) and the proportion of visceral to subcutaneous abdominal adipose tissue (VAT%), with no change in total body fat (TBF%) or BMI. Greater frequency of diet beverage intake was associated with greater WC, BMI, and TBF%, but was not associated with variation in visceral adiposity We conclude that increased frequency of SSB consumption is associated with a more adverse abdominal adipose tissue deposition pattern.