Choose water over sugary drinks to reduce child obesity, say researchers

Replacing sugary drinks with water could reduce the risk of child obesity, say researchers who counted how many calories children and teenagers down from sugary drinks.

The diet analysis of 3,098 people aged two to 19 suggested they drink an average of 235 "empty" calories from sugar-sweetened beverages per day, researchers reported in the April issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

Each one per cent of beverage replacement was linked with a 6.6 calories lower total energy intake. When sugary drinks were cut, the average person did not make up for it by eating or drinking the calories in another form.

"The evidence is now clear that replacing these 'liquid calories' with calorie-free beverage alternatives both at home and in schools represents a key strategy to eliminate excess calories and prevent childhood obesity," Dr. Claire Wang of Columbia University in New York said in a statement.

The study used national data from the U.S. in 2003-04.

Several other studies in the same issue of the journal also looked at how sugary drinks contribute to child obesity.

In a Dutch study that also involved cutting sweet drinks, researchers tested 1,108 children aged 12 and 13.

The children participated in an eight-month program that included 11 lessons on biology, physical education and lifestyle changes.

Students who participated drank fewer sugar-sweetened drinks by the end of the experiment and continued that trend 12 months later compared with those who went to schools that did not participate.

No changes were seen in how many snacks were consumed or in the number of times theywalked or biked to school, Amika Singh of the VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam and colleagues reported.

"Our findings are important, especially when considering the need for evidence on the long-term effectiveness of interventions in the field of obesity prevention," Singh's team wrote.

"Reducing intake of sugar-containing beverages should therefore be considered a good behavioural target for future interventions aimed at the prevention of overweight among adolescents."

School remains an important part of obesity-prevention programs because students spend so much of their time there, Leslie Lytle of the University of Minnesota said in an editorial accompanying the research.

"However, as the extent of the published research in this field is substantial and the findings consistently mixed and modest, it may be time to re-evaluate where the research needs to move," Lytle concluded.