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Soda Pop and Obesity

© Dr. David L. Phillips

Did you know that 1 out of every 3 people in North America is clinically obese? Clinical obesity is defined as being 20% or more over one’s normal weight. One half the population is just plain overweight.

There are many reasons for this: genetic, metabolic and glandular probably account for about 10% of the people. The rest of us just simply overeat or eat the wrong foods. You know, the usual: too much fat, salt, sugar, too much or too little carbohydrate depending on the fad diet theory of the day. We are besieged with information on weight loss. It becomes confusing and frustrating trying to sort out all those theories.

One culprit which certainly paves a path to obesity and has been in the news a lot lately is soft drinks. Soft drinks, it turns out, are the biggest source of added sugar in the average person’s daily diet. There is much concern over the various adverse effects of the overconsumption of soda pop especially by children and teenagers.

The average American drank 585 12-oz. servings of soft drinks in 1998. This works out to 1.6 cans a day for every man, woman and child in the US. The vast majority of the 15 billion gallons which Americans spent $54 billions dollars buying was cola. Coca-Cola sells about 44% of the sodas in North America. The consumption of soft drinks is expanding rapidly; it has doubled in the past 20 years. The heaviest consumers are 12-29 year old males who drink 28.5-oz. per day.

At an average consumption rate of 1.6 cans of pop a day, every person in North America is getting 7 teaspoons of sugar added to their diet. Actually there are two problems with a high soda intake: sugar and caffeine. Caffeine is added to 70% of all soft drinks consumed in North America. I will author another article about the ramifications of all this caffeine at a later date, as sugar is the major thrust of this article.

Most people don’t think of sugar and calories in their beverages as being part of their daily diet. The following study taken from the International Journal of Obesity (2000:24;794-800) is very illustrative of this point.

A group of people was divided in two for the purpose of this experiment. Both groups were given no dietary limitations or restrictions. Both groups were to consume 450 extra calories; one group was to eat those extra calories in the form of jellybeans, the other in the form of soda. After 1 month of eating and drinking this way and one month of rest, the groups were switched and the soda group was given the jellybeans while the former jellybean group was to consume the soda.