Soft drinks and health of children

Half of the American children, aged 6 to 11, drink approximately 15 ounces of soda per day. Among adolescent boys who drink soda, the average daily intake is approximately 28.5 ounces, and among girls, the average soda drinks consumes around 21 ounces per day.

For Children, increases in soft drink consumption can have serious health implications.

The consumption of soft drinks is associated with obesity in children. It's important because the numbers of fat children are increasing significantly each year.

When they controlled for television viewing (a well-known factor in childhood obesity), physical activity and other dietary factors, soft drinks by themselves added extra risk for obesity.

The prevalence of overweight and its attendant health problems is clearly on the rise among American children.

Currently, 22 percent of children age 2 to 5 years and 15 percent of children aged 6 or older are overweight.

These values are more than double the rates of overweight in the early 1970s.

For every additional glass of sugar-sweetened drink per day, the risk of obesity rose by 60 per cent.

Changing the children over to diet drinks reduced the chances of obesity by over a half.

With the booming epidemic in adult diabetes, tied back to childhood obesity, we need to do what we can to keep our kids' weight down without scaring them into anorexia.

Children obesity to which soft drinks are known to contribute, has been shown to lead to adult obesity, which it self is associated with many health problems including heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes.

Most experts say the best techniques are to increase exercise, reduce television viewing and probably reduce time at computers - and now perhaps replacing sugar-loaded drinks with diet products.
Soft drinks and health of children