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If you are fond of sugary drinks, then don't be surprised if you tend to gain too much fat around the belly. According to new research, consuming sugary beverages tend to accumulate more belly fat over a period of time. The study was conducted on 1,000 adults that revealed that those who drank at least one sugar-sweetened drink per day were prone to deep abdominal fat over a period of next six years. The researchers said that this type of known as visceral fat is of the unhealthier kind as it surrounds number of crucial organs. "Visceral fat is the kind that's closely associated with the risks of type 2 diabetes and heart disease," said Alice Lichtenstein, a spokesperson for the American Heart Association (AHA), who was not involved in the study, reported Medline Plus

The findings of the research were published in a journal, Circulation, on 11^th Jan and joins several other researches that connect sugary drinks to health consequences. There has already been research that suggests that people who consume a lot of sweet drinks are more vulnerable to heart conditions and diabetes. However, the new study suggests a mechanism that leads to it, said lead researcher Jiantao Ma, of the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Framingham Heart Study and Population Sciences Branch. The The study gathered its results based on 1,003 adults of middle age participating in a larger study regarding heart health. The CT scans used in the research measured each patient's visceral fat levels, at the beginning of the study and then after 6-years. 13% of the group consumed at least one sugar-sweetened drink every day. These were the people who showed the highest increase in visceral fat over the next 6-years. "Heart disease and other obesity-related diseases, such as diabetes, have been shown by science to be caused by a multitude of factors, not by a single beverage or food," the association said in its statement.

"To reduce the incidence of heart disease, health professionals, industry, government and others must work together to educate Americans about all the risk factors, and encourage people to maintain a healthy weight by balancing their calories from all sources in their diet," the association added, as reported by Medpage