ISLAMABAD: Diabetes and blood pressure are among the major causes of kidney diseases. Moreover, it is evident that high consumption of sugary drinks is one the major causes of diabetes.

Chairman Pakistan Kidney Patients Welfare Association Dr Zahiruddin said this in a statement.

“If we want to reduce kidney diseases, we need to reduce the use of sugary drinks from our day to day life,” he said, adding that kidney diseases were increasing in Pakistan at an alarming level.

“There are different reasons of kidney diseases but our diet plays a very important role in these diseases. Excessive use of sugar, salt and ultra processed foods has an important role in kidney diseases.

“We need to avoid sugary drinks if we want to reduce diabetes and blood pressure which is among the major causes of kidney diseases. According to a meta analysis of different studies in years 2020 and 2021, daily use of one small glass of sugary drinks increases the risk of diabetes by 19pc and blood pressure by 10pc,” he said.

“This ultimately increases the risk of kidney diseases. The government shall take policy actions to reduce the consumption of these unhealthy drinks. An evidence based policy action is to increase the tax on these unhealthy drinks. In many countries when they increased tax on sugary drinks, the consumption of these drinks decreased significantly,” he said.

Secretary general of Pakistan National Heart Association (Panah) Sanaullah Ghuman demanded from the government of Pakistan to increase taxes on beverages by at least 50pc.

“The reduction of consumption of these drinks will help decrease kidney diseases,” he said, adding that overall diabetes prevalence in Pakistan was almost 19 percent and over 522 million people were currently living with diabetes globally.

Mr Ghumman said that 90 percent of diabetic patients have type 2 diabetes, which means that they are not born with diabetes and develop it because of different reasons later on.

He said risk factors may include genetics, being overweight, gestational diabetes and polycystic ovary in women.

However sugary drinks and an inactive life increases chances of diabetes.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2023