Scientists can already see damage in the eyes of children who have been drinking fizzy drinks and eating too many carbohydrates.<\/p>\n
In a world first study, researchers from Westmead Millennium Institute for Medical\u00a0Research, the University of Sydney, have found that 12-year-olds who drink one or more\u00a0fizzy drinks or cordial a day had narrower arteries in the back of their eyes.<\/p>\n
This\u00a0increases their chances of heart disease and high blood pressure in later life.<\/p>\n
The back of eyes is the only place where researchers can see the health of a person\u2019s\u00a0blood vessel system, without opening them up. The damage does not affect vision.<\/p>\n
The study looked at around two thousand 12-year-old children in 21 high schools in\u00a0Sydney, and is an extension of a study that last year found similar damage to children\u00a0who watch too much television.<\/p>\n
“Children with a high consumption of soft drinks and carbohydrates had a more adverse\u00a0microvascular profile compared to those who did not drink so many soft drinks or eat so\u00a0many carbs,\u201d said Dr Bamini Gopinath, lead author and senior research fellow at the\u00a0Centre for Vision Research at Westmead Millennium Institute, the University of Sydney.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u201cWe measured their total carbohydrate intake over the whole day from things like bread,\u00a0rice and pasta.\u201d<\/p>\n
Retinal microvascular diameter is a potential marker for future cardiovascular disease\u00a0and high blood pressure in adults, but this is the first study to show that the effect of\u00a0carbohydrates and fizzy drinks in childhood is linked to a narrowing of the vessels in the\u00a0retina.<\/p>\n
Dr Gopinath said she would be very interested to see whether the damage persisted,\u00a0once data from the follow-up study on the same children at age 17 was analysed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Scientists can already see damage in the eyes of children who have been drinking fizzy drinks and eating too many carbohydrates. In a world first study, researchers from Westmead Millennium Institute for Medical\u00a0Research, the University of Sydney, have found that 12-year-olds who drink one or more\u00a0fizzy drinks or cordial a day had narrower arteries in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2446,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"categories":[19],"class_list":["post-2470","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cat-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/2470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}