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Obesity Epidemic Doesn’t Slow Kids’ Soda Consumption
By Christina Quick | June 3, 2008
In spite of dire warnings about childhood obesity in recent years, kids’ sugary soft drink consumption has been on the rise, a new study reveals.
Between 1988 and 2004, calorie intake from sugar-sweetened beverages rose 20 percent among kids 6 to 11 years of age, according to researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
Consumption of sugar-laden beverages — including sodas, sports drinks and sweetened fruit drinks — also increased among the 2- to 5-year-old set.
The most common sugar-sweetened beverage was soda, and most of it was consumed at home.
“The amount of empty calories that children and adolescents consume each day is very disconcerting,” says Y. Clair Wang, one of the study’s authors. “Parents, school administrators, policy-makers and leaders in the restaurant and beverage industry can all play an important role in reducing sugar-sweetened beverage consumption.”
While another recently released study reported that obesity rates may be leveling off after surging for more than two decades, Columbia researchers caution that the pace at which young people are becoming overweight remains alarmingly high, with approximately one of every three American children and teens overweight and 16 percent reported as obese. The childhood obesity rates remain more than triple the rates recorded in the 1960s and 1970s.
In addition to adding empty calories to a child’s diet, soda may contribute to tooth decay and other health problems, such as diabetes.
“Soft drinks are very destructive to children’s teeth,” according to an article in Journal of Dentistry for Children. “Many of them contain not only processed sugar, but also carbonic acid, citric acid, and phosphoric acid. The acid in sodas slowly dissolves the enamel of children’s teeth.”
It doesn’t help that sugary drinks are heavily advertised to youth and prominently displayed on popular television shows like American Idol. But it’s up to parents to draw the line and place limits on the consumption of this liquid candy.
Topics: Health |
