Is soft drink consumption associated with gestational hypertension? Results from the BRISA cohort

Abstract

It is still unknown whether excessive consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages may be linked to gestational hypertensive disorders, other than preeclampsia. This study investigated the association between soft drink consumption and hypertension during pregnancy, analyzing the relationship from the perspective of counterfactual causal theory. Data from pregnant women of the BRISA cohort were analyzed (1,380 in São Luis and 1,370 in Ribeirão Preto, Brazil). The explanatory variable was the frequency of soft drink consumption during pregnancy obtained in a prenatal interview. The outcome was gestational hypertension based on medical diagnosis, at the time of delivery. A theoretical model of the association between soft drink consumption and gestational hypertension was constructed using a directed acyclic graph. Marginal structural models (MSM) weighted by the inverse of the probability of soft drink consumption were also employed. Using Poisson regression analysis, high soft drink consumption (X7 times/week) was associated with gestational hypertension in São Luís (RR=1.48; 95%CI: 1.03-2.10), in Ribeirão Preto (RR=1.51; 95%CI: 1.13-2.01), and in the two cohorts combined (RR=1.45; 95%CI: 1.16-1.82) compared to lower exposure (o7 times/week). In the MSM, the association between high soft drink consumption and gestational hypertension was observed in Ribeirão Preto (RR=1.63; 95%CI: 1.21-2.19) and in the two cohorts combined (RR=1.51; 95%CI: 1.15-1.97), but not in São Luís (RR=1.26; 95%CI: 0.79-2.00). High soft drink consumption seems to be a risk factor for gestational hypertension, suggesting that it should be discouraged during pregnancy.

Maternal Consumption of Ultra-Processed Foods-Rich Diet and Perinatal Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…After the removal of duplicates, 4.918 article titles and abstracts were screened. Of these, 151 full-text articles were further assessed for eligibility and, finally, 61 studies [ 4 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 75 , 76 , 77 , 78 , 79 , 80 ,…”

“…The included studies were conducted in Africa [ 50 , 51 ], Asia [ 19 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 ], America [ 4 , 18 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 89 ], Europe [ 20 , 21 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 75 , 76 , 77 , 78 , 79 , 80 , 81 , …”

“…Regarding the exposure to UPF-rich diet consumption, seventeen articles assessed Western Diet Pattern (characterized by the presence of unhealthy foods such as savory and sweet snacks, cakes, cookies, desserts, refined grains, processed meats, fast foods, confectionaries and soft drinks) [ 20 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 51 , 57 , 62 , 67 , 68 , 71 , 80 , 83 , 85 ]; the intake of sweetened beverages was explored in twelve articles [ 46 , 49 , 52 , 56 , 64 , 70 , 72 , 73 , 75 , 78 , 79 , 82 ]; and specific manufactured food groups including UPF were analyzed in twelve articles [ 4 , 18 , 22 , 43 , 44 , 55 , 59 , 60 , 76 , 81 , 89 ]. In addition, studies also reported maternal consumption of junk foods [ 50 , 87 ], processed meats [ 65 , 69 ], snacks [ 61 , 84 ], industrial sweets [ 21 ...…”

“…Regarding to maternal outcomes, GWG was investigated in thirteen articles [ 4 , 18 , 36 , 42 , 51 , 58 , 64 , 67 , 77 , 81 , 84 , 89 , 90 ]; fifteen explored the association between maternal consumption and GDM [ 19 , 38 , 41 , 42 , 49 , 56 , 57 , 61 , 62 , 64 , 69 , 71 , 72 , 74 , 78 ]; and eight reported HDP, including maternal hypertension [ 20 , 35 , 39 , 52 ] and preeclampsia [ 20 , 37 , 39 , 45 , 75 , 76 ]. Two articles explored depressive symptoms during pregnancy [ 46 , 88 ].…”

Taking Highly Palatable Food or Naively Consuming Fatal Toxic Diet

“…Multiple studies reported increased obesity, diabetes mellitus, bad oral health, fatty liver, and gout, probably due to increased sugar consumption [11][12][13] . Additionally, sugar-sweetened-beverages (SSBs) consumption has cumulative health hazards and often leads to several health conditions, including malnutrition, obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), and oral disease [14][15][16] . Thereby, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Scientific Advisory Council on Nutrition, the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee 2015, and the American Heart Association, have endorsed substantial limitations on the upper limits of sugar consumption 10,17,18 .…”