India, April 9 -- You could be eating a balanced diet but if you regularly consume sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), chances are your small intestine could be processing and asking for more sugar at the cost of vital nutrients. And this is only one outcome.

As the consumption of SSBs rises in many parts of the world including India, a multi-institutional study led by the Advanced Research Unit on Metabolism, Development & Aging (ARUMDA) in the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) has shown that the small intestine, liver and muscles-the organs associated with diabetes and obesity-have distinct responses to chronic sucrose intake. The study was published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry on March 21.

Previous studies ha...