http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0305soda0305.html Scientists take on soda as 'cigarettes' of obesity Marilynn Marchione Associated Press Mar. 5, 2006 12:00 AM Low-fat, low-cal, low-carb. Atkins, South Beach, the Zone. Food fads may be distracting attention from something more insidiously piling on pounds: beverages. One of every five calories in the American diet is liquid. The nation's single biggest "food" is soda, and nutrition experts have long demonized it. In reports to be published in science journals this week, two groups of researchers hope to add evidence to the theory that soda and other sugar-sweetened drinks don't just go hand-in-hand with obesity, but actually cause it. Not that these drinks are the only cause - genetics, exercise and other factors are involved - but that they are one cause, perhaps the leading cause. A small point? In reality, proving this would be a scientific leap that could help make the case for higher taxes on soda, restrictions on how and where it is sold, even a surgeon general's warning on labels. "We've done it with cigarettes," said one scientist advocating this, Barry Popkin of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Comparing soda and obesity to tobacco and lung cancer is a baseless crusade, industry spokesmen say. "I think that's laughable," said Richard Adamson, a senior science consultant to the American Beverage Association. Lack of exercise and poor eating habits are far bigger contributors to America's weight woes, he said. "The science is being stretched," said Adam Drewnowski, director of nutritional sciences at the University of Washington-Seattle. He owns stock in beverage companies and has done extensive research in the field, much of it financed by industry but also some by government. However, those making the case against soda include some of the nation's top obesity researchers at prestigious institutions like Harvard and Yale. "There are many different lines of evidence, just like smoking," said Dr. David Ludwig, a Harvard pediatrician who wants a "fat tax" on fast food and drinks. Beverage companies seem worried. Some are making sodas "healthier" by adding calcium and vitamins, and pushing fortified but sugary sports drinks in schools that ban soda. This could help them duck any regulations aimed at "empty calorie" drinks, said Jennifer Follett, a nutritionist at the University of California-Davis. Proving that something causes disease is not easy. It took decades with tobacco, asbestos and other substances now known to cause cancer and met strong industry opposition. It would be especially tough for a disease as complex as obesity. Diet is hard to study. Most people drink at least some sweetened beverages and get calories from other drinks like milk and orange juice, diluting the strength of any observations about excess weight from soda alone. Children are growing and gaining weight naturally, "so we have this added complication" of trying to determine how much extra gain is due to sweet-drink consumption, said Alison Field, a nutrition expert at Harvard-affiliated Children's Hospital in Boston. "Given these caveats, it's amazing the association we do see," she said. She was among hundreds of scientists at a "mock trial" of such drinks at a conference of the Obesity Society last year in Vancouver, British Columbia. Here is the "food police" indictment of soda and its sugar-sweetened co-conspirators. You be the judge: Count 1: Guilt by association. Soft drink consumption rose more than 60 percent among adults and more than doubled in kids from 1977 to 1997. The prevalence of obesity roughly doubled in that time. Scientists say these parallel trends are one criterion for proving cause and effect. Numerous studies link sugary drink consumption with weight gain or obesity. One by Ludwig of 548 Massachusetts schoolchildren found that for each additional sweet drink consumed per day, the odds of obesity increased 60 percent. Another at Harvard of 51,603 nurses compared two periods, 1991-95 and 1995-99, and found that women whose soda drinking increased had bigger rises in body-mass index than those who drank less or the same. Count 2: Physical evidence. Biologically, calories from sugar-sweetened beverages are fundamentally different in the body than those from food. The main sweetener in soda, high-fructose corn syrup, can increase fats in the blood called triglycerides, raising the risk of heart problems, diabetes and other health woes. This sweetener also doesn't spur production of insulin to make the body "process" calories, nor does it spur leptin, a substance that tamps down appetite, as other carbohydrates do, explained Dr. George Bray of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La. Count 3: Bad influence on others. Sugar-sweetened beverages affect the intake of other foods, such as lowering milk consumption. Popkin contends they also may be psychological triggers of poor eating habits and cravings for fast food. He examined dietary patterns of 9,500 American adults in a federal study from 1999-2002. Those who drank healthier beverages were more likely to eat vegetables and less likely to eat fast food. Conversely, "fast-food consumption was doubled if they were high soda consumers and vegetable consumption was halved," he said. In rebuttal, Adamson, the beverage industry spokesman, sees no such consistency. He cites a 2004 Harvard study of more than 10,000 children and teens. Consumption of sugar-added beverages was tied to body-mass index gain in boys but not girls, a gender difference that warrants a "jaundiced eye" to claims that soda is at fault, he said. He also points to a Harvard study finding no link between weight changes and soda consumption among 1,345 North Dakota children ages 2 to 5, a group that arguably drinks far less soda than teens and adults. "Whatever association there is doesn't seem to be large," said Richard Forshee, deputy director of the Center for Food, Nutrition and Agriculture Policy at the University of Maryland who has received research funding from the beverage industry and global sugar producers.
i started drinking diet soda after my sister was diagnosed with diabetes. now, regular coke tastes like shiite.
ya. But here is a study for you: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/06/13/health/webmd/main701408.shtml
i probably have 2 soft drinks a month.... if even. i've been drinking a lot of POM and cranberry juices (and tea)..... POM is absolutely delicious. how people can drink so much coke is beyond me. the occassional Dr. Pepper not withstanding.
The vending machines here are frequently out of Mountain Dew. Techie dorks love that stuff. Anyone here who denounes sodas is crazy. As long as you limit yourself to like 1 can or fountain drink a day, you're fine. When I'm throwing down a burrito at Freebird's, I like to wash it down with a Dr. Pepper.
At 120 calories per can, that's 43,800 calories per year. I'm officially on the "sodas are evil" bandwagon. I haven't had a regular soda in over two months now. The thing about sodas is that they provide calories without filling you up. Plus, you'll save two bucks on your dinner tab if you get water.
I rarely drink soda anymore, and when I do it is usually either some kind of weird organic/natural brand, or I make sure the soda has no high fructose corn syrup in it.
Many fruit juices contain the major thing that makes sodas so bad, corn syrup. Make sure it is 100% juice if you drink it.
well, of course you're gonna gain weight if you order a double bacon cheeseburger with a side of chili cheese fries and a milk shake with your diet coke.
I usually limit myself to one a day, at lunch. If they are comparing it to addiction to tobacco, I think they are dead on...I'm about as addicted as you can get to Dr. Pepper...but, I do limit myself. As far as the obesity thing goes, it's more psychological than anything. I don't think the majority of people associate soda with obesity, since it is liquid. They know it has the sugar, but just don't think it will make them fat so they drink it all the time (rather than drinking water).
I gave up Soda's a little over a year ago. I dropped 35 pounds in the process. I'll drink water, Gatorade, Powerade and Iced Tea. That's it.
Yeah, true. But there is another study about the sweetners in diet soda & that they actually make people crave real sweets. I believe its the aspertame and sucralose used in diet soda's make people have sugar cravings.
I've been on Atkins since November (lost 35 pounds!) so soda's are obviously a big no-no. I drink 1 or 2 diet cokes at night (with a little rum ) as a treat if I've had my water for the day. I was never a diet soda fan, but diet coke is actually pretty good. And yes, I drink lots of water. Probably about a gallon a day. No kidding.
The largest people I know drink the most Diet soda....I don't think it is the Diet that's causing them to be large, it's the fact that they eat a ton of food in addition to their diet stuff. I don't really understand it....But I've recently tried to cut back on drinking Dr. Pepper. I got into the habit of drinking a ton of the stuff. At least 1 liter a day...I'm sticking to water and maybe a diet drink every other day or so.
First you get the sugar. Then you get the power. Then you get the women. I gave up soda for several weeks recently (and I had been pretty addicted to it). After I got past the initial cravings for the stuff, I started feeling a lot better and really began enjoying the taste of good ice water again. Recently I've started drinking soda again, albeit mostly diet, caffeine free soda, which a lot of diets consider the equivalent of a glass of water. But I think I'll get back off it totally again. I'm starting to miss that healthy feeling.
