New Review Links Sugary Drinks to Obesity?

As obesity continues to grow globally, scientists still question why. So with the focus clearly on sugar, lead author Dr Maria Luger and her team recently published a review of 30 papers analysing sugar-sweetened drinks in the journal Obesity Facts, the journal of the European Association for the Study of Obesity.

Overall, the study included 244,651 study participants from across the world. They were followed for a number of years and were asked to fill out questionnaires, or interviewed, or complete short food diaries. In the end, all but one study found a positive relationship between sugary drinks and weight gain. The study that didn't find a link between drinking sugar and gaining body fat was small but lengthy and assessed food records. The authors assume the children didn't gain fat because they didn't consume as many sugary drinks, therefore the impact wasn't there.

This review also analysed solutions to help people make dietary changes and swaps such as healthy lifestyle education and swapping pop for water. As it happens, the results were not that significant or had no effect.

The authors conclude, "By combining the already published evidence with the new one, we conclude that public health policies should aim to reduce the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and encourage healthy alternatives such as water".

Nevertheless, something needs to change. As obesity grows so do the food-related illnesses. Diabetes, heart diseases, depression, dementia, even cancers are all consequences of our lifestyles. However, is sugar to blame?

All in all, sugar is linked to disease... and so is fat... and junk food. In reality, the foods you eat have an effect on your body, positive or negative. Therefore, it's more important to focus on meal combinations rather than blaming sugar for our problems. Make healthy meal choices and enjoy occasional treats.