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Stay away from a soda (or more) a day
Research directly links soda consumption and obesity
When Suzy Favor Hamilton and I make trips to schools to promote the Movin’ and Munchin’ program, we often talk about avoiding too much soda.
For many of us, reducing soda intake is just a common-sense idea that we’ve known for a long time. However, recent clinical studies are showing a lot of scientific reasons for minimizing our intake of sugar-filled beverages.
A study released last fall in California by UCLA researchers provides a clear correlation between obesity and consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages.
Based upon data from more than 40,000 interviews, researchers found that:
- Adults who drink one or more sodas per day are 27% more likely to be overweight than those who do not drink sodas.
- Forty-one percent of young children (2-11 years of age) are drinking at least one soda or sugar-sweetened beverage every day.
- Adolescents (12-17) represent the biggest consumers of soda, with 62% drinking one or more every day—the equivalent of consuming 39 pounds of sugar each year in soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages.
While those numbers don’t sound good, there is some good news amid the bad. For the 11th straight year, per capita soda consumption in the United States dropped in 2009. The popularity of bottled water and related drinks has helped, but so have the many schools that have banned soda from their vending machines. Even though consumption is falling, there is still a lot of room for further improvement.
Here are a few strategies to use to curtail soda consumption:
- Avoid soda when dining out: Just because soda comes with the meal doesn’t mean your kids have to drink it. Alternatives are always available. At fast food restaurants, you can opt for a bottle of water or low-fat milk. Even chocolate milk is a much better choice than soda because (although high in sugar) it provides calcium, vitamin D, and protein.
- Lead by example: Don’t drink soda around your kids. The American Dietetic Association reported that “Youth whose parents regularly drank soft drinks were 2.88 times more likely…to consume soft drinks five or more times per week compared with those whose parents did not regularly drink soft drinks.”
- Make soda a treat: Rather than banning it altogether, make it a special-occasion treat.
- Weekly allotment: For older kids, give them a choice of a certain amount of sodas per week to be consumed whenever they want them.
- Get creative: Use the Internet or just your imagination and hold a family contest to create some healthier alternatives to soda.
