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Are
Sugary Drinks Most Blamed For Causing Obesity? According to a report released in September 2012, at least 44 percent of American adults were projected to be obese by 2030, compared to 35.7 percent today. This would also mean that an extra $66 billion a year in obesity-related medical costs would be incurred to cover diseases that are caused by obesity, including heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, and certain types of cancer. There are so many factors that could lead to overweight or even obesity. These include genes, sedentary lifestyle, unhealthy diet, lack of sleep, quit smoking, pregnancy, certain medications such as antidepressants and steroids. But, what is the most to blame for the obesity epidemic in the United States? The debate has been going on for quite some time. As the number of calories consumed from sugary drinks had doubled from 1977 to 2002, sugary drinks have been a center of interest in United States of America. Meanwhile, government data also showed that they are the largest single source of calories in the diet. In a paper published on September 21, 2012 in the ‘New England Journal of Medicine’ (NEJM), researchers from Boston Children's Hospital claimed that they had found that sugary drinks did play a leading role.
A total of 224 obese adolescents (124 boys and 100 girls) were enrolled for the study. The participants were reported consuming at least one serving (12 oz) per day of sugar-sweetened beverages or 100-percent fruit juice. They were randomly assigned to an experimental (110 teens) or a control group (114 teens) for 2 years, which included a 1-year intervention and a 1-year follow-up. Zero-calorie drinks were delivered to the teens in the experimental group and these teens were counseled not to consume sugary drinks and were offered with other supports. After a year, they had gained an average of 3.5 pounds (1.6 kilos) and 0.06 unit of BMI. In comparison, the teens in the control group who continued consuming sugary drinks gained 7.7 pounds (3.5 kilos) on average and 0.63 unit of BMI. Delivery of zero-calorie drinks stopped after 1 year. At the end of the second year, teens in the experimental group had gained 9.5 pounds (4.3 kilos) and 0.71 unit of BMI, compared to those in the control group who gained 11.2 pounds (5.5 kilos) and 1.0 unit of BMI. The findings also discovered that the Hispanic teens benefited the most. Those receiving no-calorie deliveries gained 14 fewer pounds after 1 year and almost 20 fewer pounds after second year. This might indicate that genetic factors did influence the effect of sugary drinks. Another study that was conducted by scientists from Harvard School of Public Health investigated gene-environment-obesity links. They reported on September 21, 2012 also in the NEJM that the effect of genes on the likelihood of becoming obese was twice as big among people who drank one or more sugary drinks per day as among those who had less than one a month. Researchers monitored 33,097 people from long-term ongoing health studies, such as the Nurses' Health Study, and identified how many sugary drinks they consumed and whether they had any of 32 genes linked to obesity. People with fat genes could be thinner if they could avoid sugary drinks and other high-calorie foods. In other words, eating a healthy diet without sugary drinks can keep fat genes inactive. Both findings seem to find that sugary drinks are most blamed for obesity. However, beverage industries expressed their different views on the new findings. The American Beverage Association (ABA), for instance, insisted that obesity is not uniquely caused by any single food or beverage. They also pointed out that consumption of sugary drinks has fallen while obesity rates keep rising. Most observational studies had found that people who drank sugary beverages were more likely to be obese than people who did not, but no cause-and-effect has been proved so far. People who drink sugary beverages, especially children, also watch more TV and eat calorie-dense fast food. This raises the possibility that liquid sugary beverage is not the main culprit.
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