In many previous studies and meta-analyses [6–12], SSB consumption was shown to be associated with the incidence of type 2 diabetes. However, SSB consumption was not associated with the incidence of diabetes in the present study. The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study also failed to show a consistent association between SSB intake and incident type 2 diabetes [13]. As discussed by the authors, their participants were older (mean age 53.6 years) and heavier (mean BMI 27.2 kg/m2) compared to those in other similar studies, which may have affected the results. Our study participants were younger and less obese, and median SSB consumption was as low as 0.20 servings (1.6 oz)/day; only 12 % of participants consumed C1 serving of SSB per day. Furthermore, the HR of participants who consumed one serving or more of SSB was 1.20–1.34; these values were similar to recent meta-analyses that compared the risk of type 2 diabetes between
extreme quantiles of SSB intake [12]. Estimated sample sizes to detect the significant difference using these data of previous studies were about 13,000 parson-years in each
category of SSB consumption. Therefore, the lower number of participants, particularly of SSB consumers, in our study may have affected the results.