Health & Medicine
Sugary Drinks Linked to High Obesity Rate in Kids
Kathleen Lees
First Posted: Aug 05, 2013 09:34 AM EDT
Soda and kids don't mix.
Reason number one: The sugar from soda causes kids to stay up all night and it drives adults insane. Reason number two: Soda (in anyone for that matter, but for this sake, we're focusing on children) can greatly increase their risk of obesity. And when we say soda, we're talking sports drinks and juices, too. All this stuff is loaded with unnecessary monosaccharides that can send your 11-year-old on his or her way to riding a mobility-scooter faster than you can say Code Red Mountain Dew. (Ok, maybe not THAT fast, but some precautionary health measures should definitely be taken.)
Let's look at a recent study that weighed children and their mothers who had just conducted a survey regarding beverage consumption. The survey entailed a nationally-represented group of 9,600 children during the age periods of two, four and five years. All of the children were born in 2001.
According to the study, the proportion of kids who had at least one soda, sports drink or sugar-sweetened juice drink each day ranged from 9 to 13 percent, depending on their age.
The children and their mothers were weighed in at each survey visit.
Results showed that 9 to 13 percent of children had at least one soda, sports drink or sugar-sweetened beverage each day.
These children were also more likely to watch more amounts of television and have an overweight mother.
Results also showed that approximately 15 percent of five-year-olds in the study were obese.
Yet fat cat soda companies seem to fame skepticism that gulping down sodas, drinks filled with empty, sugary calories, have much at all to do with weight gain.
"Overweight and obesity are caused by an imbalance between calories consumed from all foods and beverages (total diet) and calories burned (physical activity). Therefore, it is misleading to suggest that beverage consumption is uniquely responsible for weight gain among this group of children, especially at a time in their lives when they would normally gain weight and grow," notes a statement via the American Beverage Association, according to Reuters Health.
Hm... Why does this make us thirsty regardless? (Just kidding.) What do you think?
More information regarding the study can be found online in the journal Pediatrics.
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First Posted: Aug 05, 2013 09:34 AM EDT
Soda and kids don't mix.
Reason number one: The sugar from soda causes kids to stay up all night and it drives adults insane. Reason number two: Soda (in anyone for that matter, but for this sake, we're focusing on children) can greatly increase their risk of obesity. And when we say soda, we're talking sports drinks and juices, too. All this stuff is loaded with unnecessary monosaccharides that can send your 11-year-old on his or her way to riding a mobility-scooter faster than you can say Code Red Mountain Dew. (Ok, maybe not THAT fast, but some precautionary health measures should definitely be taken.)
Let's look at a recent study that weighed children and their mothers who had just conducted a survey regarding beverage consumption. The survey entailed a nationally-represented group of 9,600 children during the age periods of two, four and five years. All of the children were born in 2001.
According to the study, the proportion of kids who had at least one soda, sports drink or sugar-sweetened juice drink each day ranged from 9 to 13 percent, depending on their age.
The children and their mothers were weighed in at each survey visit.
Results showed that 9 to 13 percent of children had at least one soda, sports drink or sugar-sweetened beverage each day.
These children were also more likely to watch more amounts of television and have an overweight mother.
Results also showed that approximately 15 percent of five-year-olds in the study were obese.
Yet fat cat soda companies seem to fame skepticism that gulping down sodas, drinks filled with empty, sugary calories, have much at all to do with weight gain.
"Overweight and obesity are caused by an imbalance between calories consumed from all foods and beverages (total diet) and calories burned (physical activity). Therefore, it is misleading to suggest that beverage consumption is uniquely responsible for weight gain among this group of children, especially at a time in their lives when they would normally gain weight and grow," notes a statement via the American Beverage Association, according to Reuters Health.
Hm... Why does this make us thirsty regardless? (Just kidding.) What do you think?
More information regarding the study can be found online in the journal Pediatrics.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone