As many as 8,000 new cases of diabetes in the studies can be directly linked to the consumption of sugary drinks according to the researchers.
Academics reviewed previous studies for the US and the UK that looked into rates of diabetes and the causes of them. The 17 studies reviewed covered over 38,200 people.
The findings suggest that 6 percent of cases in the UK and 13 percent of cases in the US were linked to the consumption of sugary drinks.
The American Diabetes Association confirmed that the most prevalent form of diabetes is type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is a condition where the body becomes resistant to insulin with the human body failing to acquire insulin from other sources leaving the body with negative health effects.
The risk with type 2 diabetes if it is not treated properly is that the pancreas does not create the right volume of insulin which then causes the blood glucose levels to fall below acceptable levels for continued good health.
Currently, the American Diabetes Association has data to suggest that 29.1 million people across the United States have already contracted one of the forms of diabetes.
For their part, beverage makers have been on the defensive about the value of their product in the marketplace. Beverage companies have previously been keen to point out that they offer many different kinds of drinks for consumption to meet the health requirements of different consumers.
For instance, sugar-free drinks like Pepsi Zero offer an alternative to the full sugar experience of the Pepsi drinking experience. Fruit juices, fruit-infused drinks and drinking water have been some of the healthier beverage choices included in the product range by mass-market beverage companies such as Coca Cola and Pepsi in recent years.
Consumers vote with their feet and will have to decide how concerned they wish to be about their current level of sugar consumption going forward.
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