Avoiding Sugared
Drinks Limits Weight
New York City government face a
criticism of becoming a nanny state, city health officials banned the sale of
supersize sugar-laden drinks. They are trying to come up with a solution for
the problem of obesity that affected two-third of American adults and one third
of children in the U.S.A. Scientists have handed the ban for strong evidence
that replacing sugared drinks with sugar-free or water can slow weight gain in
children.
Beverage industry
officials denounced the research that might end up with applying more taxes or
other restrictions.
Researchers at
Boston Children’s Hospital assigned 224 over weight teenagers to receive water
and diet drinks for one year. The result was that they gained only 3.5 pounds,
while a comparison group of similar teenagers gained 7.7 pounds in one year.
Other researchers
at Vu University Amsterdam randomly assigned 641 normal weight children to
drink 104-calorie sugar-sweetened or sugar-free drink for 18 months. The result
was 13.9 pounds gained to 16.2 pounds gained for those drinking the sugar-added
version. Both studies suggest that soda is a pretty good place to start.
Officials with
the American Beverage Association criticized the studies, saying that obesity
is not caused by a single food or beverage.
A similar
experiment of sugar-free drink is applied on Hispanic -who have high rate of
diabetes- children by Dr Ludwig end up with 1 pound weight gain to 20 pounds in
average.
Dr Katan warned
that studies need to examine consumer reaction to policies restricting sweetened
drinks. Taxing soft drinks could result in buying fewer fruits to afford soft
drinks.
Both clinical
trials have limitations, they demonstrate the effect of a single behavioral
change on weight gain, said Dr Seema Kumar, a pediatric endocrinologist at the
Mayo Clinic Children Center. In fact there are multiple aspects such as portion
sizes, frequency of snacks and types of snacks, she said. So, curbing soda
consumption “is not a magic pill”.
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