Health News
Soft Drinks and Obesity
March 7, 2006
Teens who consume soft drinks are piling on the pounds. A recent study followed 103 teens as they consumed either regular sugary drinks or artificially sweetened drinks and noncaloric beverages for six month. The study focused on the consumption of beverages in the teen's home environments. The study reveals that limiting the consumption of sugary drinks had a beneficial effect on weight loss.
Cara Ebbeling, who led the experiment, calculates that a single 12-oz sugar-sweetened beverage per day translates to about 1 pound of weight gain over 3 to 4 weeks. "Sugary beverages have no nutritional value and seem to make a huge contribution to weight gain," she says.
This study was published in the International Journal of Pediatric Obesity. The International Journal of Pediatric Obesity is a new, peer-reviewed, quarterly journal devoted to research into obesity during childhood and adolescence. The topic is currently at the centre of intense interest in the scientific community, and is of increasing concern to health policy-makers and the public at large.