Do Sweet Drinks between Meals affect our Weight?

This should not come as a surprise to anyone, but habits we develop as children usually stay with us for a lifetime. Eating habits is one such example.

In June 2007, a study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association looked at the link between drinking sweet drinks such as non-diet, carbonated drinks and fruit drinks and the prevalence of overweight preschool children. These types of drinks have often been accused of playing a large role in the development of obesity in kids and adults. It is important to remember the saying innocent until proven guilty because evidence for this accusation is far from conclusive.

Data was collected from 1998 through to 2002 from over 1,900 children. One of the habits examined was how often these sweet drinks were consumed between meals. At the same time the kid's heights and weights were measured. The data suggested that sweet drinks consumed between meals more than doubles the odds of being overweight. Looking at this study from an economic perspective showed that kids in lower income brackets that consumed sweet drinks between meals were three time more likely to be overweight compared to kids of a higher economic bracket who did not drink sweet drinks.

Do Sweet Drinks between Meals affect our Weight?

So what does all this mean? It implies that young children that regularly drink sweet drinks between meals are more susceptible to being overweight as they grow older. It should also send a message to parents to try to monitor how many sweets they are giving their kids as this could be a gateway to a lifetime of struggling with their weight.