Soft drinks are often blamed for the increase of obesity in kids, but a new study has found that the fizzy drinks alone do no influence a child’s weight.
The study, a recent scientific analysis of a nationally representative sample of children’s diets and lifestyles by researchers in the UK found no link between the amount of soft drinks children consume and their body weight.As a part of their study researchers led by Sigrid Gibson (SiG-Nurture Independent Nutrition Consultants), investigated sugars and soft drinks intake in 1294 children aged 7 – 18 years kids from the Government’s National Diet and Nutrition Survey of Young People across the range of body weights seen in a nationally representative sample.
They found that though those with the highest BMI consumed almost 300 extra calories per day compared with children of normal body weight, only 5 percent of this extra energy (approx 14 calories) came from soft drinks.
In fact, the researchers noted that kids of normal weight tended to have a higher intake of sugar (also referred to as non-milk extrinsic sugars [NMES]) overall than those in the highest BMI category.
Mrs Gibson stated that the despite having a greater overall calorie intake (especially from fat and protein), overweight children consumed a similar amount of soft drinks to their leaner contemporaries.
“Overweight children consumed more food in general, and had a tendency towards more savoury than sweet foods. We found no evidence that overweight children derived a greater proportion of their energy from caloric soft drinks compared with leaner individuals,” she said.
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“In this major British survey, overweight children had significantly longer sedentary periods than children of normal weight,” she said.
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Source-ANI
SRM/J
