The recent number of studies implicating the consumption of soft drinks and diet soft drinks as health hazards has only gained in momentum recently.
The latest study from Japan monitored soda consumption of approximately 40,000 people. Researchers found women who drank the most soda had a higher risk of stroke than those who consumed less or none. This result was not observed in men.
Back in March, a controversial study asserted that the coloring used in colas might be a human carcinogen as it caused cancer in lab rats that had been fed large amounts. Both the major cola makers changed the amount of coloring they used in their product as a result of the publication of the test results.
Obviously, it is not just the chemicals that are problematic in sodas. It is also the large amount of empty calories that the sugar-laden ones deliver, and the paradoxical weight gain associated with the diet ones. Both sugar-laden and diet sodas are linked to the rampant obesity that is plaguing the planet — the sugary ones because of the huge dose per serving of glucose and the sugar-free ones because they set your brain up for “expecting” a sugar feed, which leads to overeating.
The University of San Diego ran a small study recently that showed that diet soda drinkers had reduced activation in the area of the brain that signals reward and food intake control. The researchers suggest that the reward loops normally processed by the brain are thrown off by diet sodas as sweetness is no longer a reliable indicator of incoming calories or glucose.
Now I’d be the last one to make any claims that drinking soda is a good thing to do. However, one thing that makes some of the claims against soda a little unscientific is that the studies may not have controlled for other lifestyle choices that soda drinkers may make, such as eating more junk food, being sedentary or smoking.
It is really easy to draw conclusions that may be erroneous if the studies are not properly controlled. Clearly taking one component of sodas, such as the coloring, and testing that is a clear indicator of a well-controlled study.
Without a doubt, there is no nutritional value in soda, and therefore it is taking the place of something that could be nutritious. From that perspective, for me, it is a non-starter. The combination of high-fructose corn syrup, chemicals, phosphoric acid and artificial colors and flavors makes soda one of the worst nutritional choices possible. The damage starts with your teeth and doesn’t end just at the waistline.
More than 12.5 million American children and 78 million adults are obese. The 40 years of increasing national girth have paralleled an estimated doubling of calories consumed in drinks sweetened with sugar and high-fructose corn syrup. It is estimated that currently 222 daily calories come from sugary drinks in the average American diet. We’ve also seen a co-measured increase in diabetes in the last four decades.
“I know of no other category of food whose elimination can produce weight loss in such a short period of time,” Dr. David Ludwig, director of the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center at Boston Children’s Hospital, said. “The most effective single target for an intervention aimed at reducing obesity is sugary beverages.”
Previous research on the subject has been mixed, and beverage makers fiercely contest the idea that a single source of daily calories can bear so much responsibility.
I know what I think. What do you think?
• Jane Riley, M.S., B.A., C.P.T., C.N.A., can be reached at janerileyfitness@gmail.com, 808-212-1451 or www.janerileyfitness.com.
