• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Does Theory Tying Soda to Obesity Hold Water? Some Experts Say Yes

Posted on: Tuesday, 7 March 2006, 09:00 CST

By Marilynn Marchione

Low-fat, low-cal, low-carb. Atkins, South Beach, the Zone. Food fads may be distracting attention from something more insidiously piling on pounds: beverages.

One of every five calories in the American diet is liquid. The nation's single biggest "food" is soda, and nutrition experts have long demonized it.

Now they are escalating the fight.

In reports to be published in science journals this week, two groups of researchers hope to add evidence to the theory that soda and other sugar-sweetened drinks don't just go hand-in-hand with obesity but actually cause it. Not that these drinks are the only cause -- genetics, exercise and other factors are involved -- but that they are one cause, perhaps the leading cause.

A small point? In reality, proving this would be a scientific leap that could help make the case for higher taxes on soda, restrictions on how and where it is sold, and maybe even a surgeon general's warning on labels.

"We've done it with cigarettes," said Barry Popkin of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, a scientist who advocates such a warning.

Comparing soda and obesity to tobacco and lung cancer is a baseless crusade, industry spokesmen say.

"I think that's laughable," said Richard Adamson, a senior science consultant to the American Beverage Association. Lack of exercise and poor eating habits are far bigger contributors to America's weight woes, he said.

"The science is being stretched," said Adam Drewnowski, director of nutritional sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle. He owns stock in beverage companies and has done extensive research in the field, much of it financed by industry but also some by government.

Those making the case against soda include some of the nation's top obesity researchers at prestigious institutions like Harvard and Yale.

"There are many different lines of evidence, just like smoking," said Dr. David Ludwig, a Harvard pediatrician who wants a "fat tax" on fast food and drinks.

Beverage companies seem worried. Some are making sodas "healthier" by adding calcium and vitamins, and pushing fortified but sugary sports drinks in schools that ban soda. This could help them duck any regulations aimed at "empty calorie" drinks, said Jennifer Follett, a USDA nutritionist at the University of California in Davis.

Proving that something causes disease is not easy. It took decades with tobacco, asbestos and other substances now known to cause cancer, and met strong industry opposition. It would be especially tough for a disease as complex as obesity.

Children are growing and gaining weight naturally, "so we have this added complication" of trying to determine how much extra gain is due to sweet-drink consumption, said Alison Field, a nutrition expert at Harvard-affiliated Children's Hospital in Boston.

Source: Buffalo News

More News in this Category