Most commercial soft drinks contain large amounts of sugar and thus energy. They have few other nutrients and little satiety effect. Consumption of sugar-containing beverages could lead to an energy imbalance and to overweight in the long term is an associate increase in total dietary energy intake.
In a study on children and adolescents, each additional serving ( 240 mL) of sugar-sweetened beverage was associated by a daily increase in total energy intake of 106 kcal (Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2009;163:336-43).
Even of the drinks are ‘low energy’, they are very sweet possibly encouraging ‘a sweet tooth’ and a desire for more drinks of this kind.
Data from the USDA Continuing Surveys of Food Intakes by Individuals from 1977 and 1995 indicated the proportion of adolescent boys and girls consuming soft drinks, the biggest source of refined sugar in the diet, increased by 74% and 65% respectively (Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 1999, 99:p.436-442).
Energy intake and soft drink consumption were primitively related among children and adolescent and there was a positive relationship has been observed between adolescent soft drink consumption and weight gain over a two year period (Ludwig, Peterson. Lancet, 2001.357:p505-508).
WHO has recommended that adults and children limit their consumption of free sugars, particularly sugar sweetened soft drinks to less than 10% of total energy in order to prevent obesity (WHO 2003). WHO postulated a high consumption of soft drinks as a ‘probable’ factor that promotes obesity.
Soft drink and children obesity
