No More Soda Would Combat Teen Obesity

Sodas of any kind are the most popular beverages in the world, especially among teens and children in the developed world. But the problem with these drinks is that they are laden with sugar, which, if consumed in excess, can cause a range of severe medical conditions, including diabetes and obesity. New medical research seems to show that replacing these sodas with water may be the key step to ensuring that obesity rates among the young population go down.

“The key observation is that when kids substitute sugar-sweetened beverages with water, there is a significant decline in total energy intake without any compensatory increase in the consumption of other beverages or food,” Dr Y. Claire Wang, an expert at the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, in New York, explained for Reuters Health. She added that children consumed vast amounts of calories with these beverages, but that these calories were not of the healthy kind.

“Replacing these liquid calories with calorie-free beverage alternatives therefore represents a key strategy to eliminate excess calories and to prevent obesity in childhood,” Wand and her team of researchers also added. Their paper appears in a recent issue of the scientific journal Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, and highlights the fact that soda consumption among teenagers has increased considerably since the 1970s, as well as the fact that these beverages are “an important contributing factor to obesity.”

For their study, the researchers analyzed statistical data on over 3,098 children, aged between two and 19. The pieces of information had been made available to them by the 2003-2004 US National Health and Nutrition Survey. Sodas “should be viewed as treats, not necessities, and water is a perfect substitute for the purpose of thirst-quenching,” Dr Wang also underlined. Furthermore, the researchers mentioned the fact that each one-percent decrease in the amount of soda sugar consumed was roughly equivalent to a 6.5-percent decrease in the total amount of calories, which meant that children could benefit from these finds with just a minimum effort.