Sugary beverage intake and preclinical Alzheimer's disease in the community

Introduction Excess sugar consumption has been linked with Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology in animal models. Methods We examined the cross-sectional association of sugary beverage consumption with neuropsychological (N = 4276) and magnetic resonance imaging (N = 3846) markers of preclinical Alzheimer's disease and vascular brain injury (VBI) in the community-based Framingham Heart Study. Intake of sugary beverages was estimated using a food frequency questionnaire. Results Relative to consuming less than one sugary beverage per day, higher intake of sugary beverages was associated with lower total brain volume (1–2/day, β ± standard error [SE] = −0.55 ± 0.14 mean percent difference, P =.0002; >2/day, β ± SE = −0.68 ± 0.18, P <.0001), and poorer performance on tests of episodic memory (all P <.01). Daily fruit juice intake was associated with lower total brain volume, hippocampal volume, and poorer episodic memory (all P <.05). Sugary beverage intake was not associated with VBI in a consistent manner across outcomes. Discussion Higher intake of sugary beverages was associated cross-sectionally with markers of preclinical AD.