Drinking soft drinks to rehydrate worsens dehydration-related kidney injury

Repeated heat-related dehydration has been associated with increased risk of chronic kidney damage in mice. A new study in rats published in the American Journal of Physiology—Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology reports that drinking soft drinks to rehydrate worsened dehydration and kidney injury.

For four weeks, rats were exposed to mild heat-induced dehydration followed by access to water, water containing the fructose and glucose content of a typical soft drink, or water with stevia. Fructose and glucose, which are sugars that naturally occur in food, are added to soft drinks for sweetness. Stevia is a sugar substitute derived from a plant and has no calories.

Rats that drank the fructose-glucose water after repeated heat-induced dehydration were more dehydrated and had worse kidney injury than rats that drank plain water or water with stevia. "Our studies raise serious concerns for the common practice, especially among adolescents and young adults, to drink soft drinks as a means to quench thirst following an episode of dehydration," the authors wrote.