Diet File: Eat Smart 2

Can the Pop

Here's another good reason to go easy on the soft drinks. An American study published in Great Britain's prestigious medical journal The Lancet suggests that children who drink a single soft drink a day have a 60 per cent greater chance of becoming obese than those who don't drink pop. The study, from Children's Hospital in Boston, followed 548 children aged 11 and 12 for two school years. The researchers found that for every can or glass of sugar-sweetened beverage that a child drank during that time, his body mass index inched up and his chances of becoming obese rose significantly. This held true regardless of initial body mass, diet, television-viewing habits and level of physical activity.

Studies show that while people tend to eat less at a meal if they've consumed excess calories at a previous one, they don't tend to cut down if extra calories come from beverages. In other words, it's not likely that a child would eat less food to compensate for extra soft drink calories. The overall result is that a child will take in more calories than he burns off.

The incidence of obesity among children is growing at an alarming rate. Many factors are contributing to this increase, with soft drinks being only one piece of the puzzle. Eating a balanced diet and daily physical exercise are still the most important strategies in controlling this dangerous trend.