image: Rodrigo Dantas
Science is finally catching up with common sense.
A new study shows that sugar-sweetened beverages (pop, fruit drinks, fruit punch, energy drinks, slurpees, or any other high-calorie beverage sweetened with sugar) have a stronger effect on obesity than any other beverage as well as any type of solid food.
The Science
The researchers tracked the dietary habits of 810 men and women aged 25-79 years old via food logs.
Beverages were divided into 7 categories:
- Sugar-sweetened beverages or SSBs
- diet drinks (diet soda and other diet drinks sweetened with artificial sweeteners)
- milk (whole milk, 2% reduced-fat milk, 1% low-fat milk, and skim milk)
- 100% juice (100% fruit and vegetable juice)
- coffee and tea with sugar (sweetened with sugar)
- coffee and tea without sugar (unsweetened or sweetened with artificial sweeteners)
- alcoholic beverages (beer, wine, spirits, and other alcoholic drinks).
Results
At the end of the 18 month long study, researchers found that:
- a reduction in liquid calorie intake was significantly associated with weight loss at both 6 months and 18 months
- the weight-loss effect of a reduction in liquid calorie intake was stronger than that of a reduction in solid calorie intake
- a reduction in sugar-sweetened beverage intake was significantly associated with weight loss at both 6 and 18 months
- no other beverage type was associated with weight change
Conclusion
The first and most successful step to losing weight is eliminating all sugar-sweetened beverages from your diet.
Period.
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Reference
- Eurekalert
- AJCN study
- A 2008 study suggesting SSBs are strongly linked to childhood obesity
- Another study – 2004
- Another study
- And another
- Are you getting the idea?
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Why do people not see this. Thanks for hi-lighting what obviously needs to be hammered into some people’s brains. Keep up the good work.
It it took until 2009 for some-one to figure this out?
The science of nutrition sucks with this research thing.
Though, I guess if they didn’t at least “test” it, the average person would just discard it as “opinion”. It is a sad, sad world we live in.
“All”? Damn. I have managed to cut back quite a lot on my soft drink consumption, but I still like having one every once in a while, probably a couple or more a week. (This is having gone from 1 or 2 a day.) I’m not sure I could completely cut them out.