According to the 2004 National Health Survey, 8.2 per cent of Singaporeans or some 328,000 people here have diabetes.

The results of this study, which was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology on Feb 16, was the first large study addressing the topic of soft drinks and juice intake and the incidence of type 2 diabetes in Asian people.

Dr Goh Su-Yen, director of the Diabetes Centre at the Singapore General Hospital, said that when data emerged from the Nurses Health Study in 2003 about the link between consumption of soft drinks and risk of type 2 diabetes, it sparked a fierce debate between scientists and the soft drinks industry.

"It is interesting, then, that this Asian study reports that the increased risk of diabetes was independent of level of weight gain or BMI, albeit the strongest association (and thus risk) was seen in the group which consumed more and had moderate to high weight gain," she said.

Diabetes expert Dr Lee Chung Horn said: "The interesting thing is fruit juices seem to also come with a risk. Of course virtually all fruits contain natural sugars, and so a statistical association may not be all that surprising."

Dr Goh said that while diabetics do not need to avoid fruit juices completely, they need to be aware of the sugar and calorie content in their drinks.

While Dr Lee felt that doctors should not be too rigid about the number of soft drinks, Prof Koh cited a 2004 National Health survey, which found that 47 per cent of Singaporeans consume soft drinks two times a week.

"The risk of getting diabetes goes up with a population that is rapidly putting on weight. This applies to Singapore and other Asian countries. For instance if the weight goes up by 3kg in the last five years, then the risk of getting diabetes increases to 70 per cent," she added.

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