By M.E. Pegs
As doctors and researchers frantically warn about the many causes of the obesity epidemic in America (and there are quite a few), there is one cause that stands head and shoulders above the rest: that cold, bubbly and refreshing soda pop.
According to government data, sweetened soft drinks are so prevalent, so ingrained into everyday culture, that it contributes about 10 percent of the calories into the american diet
Lack of exercise, sedentary lifestyle, processed foods are all highly suspect, but as Dr. David Ludwig, a Harvard endocrinologist whose 2001 paper in the Lancet is widely cited by obesity researchers, sweetened drinks are the only specific food that clinical research has directly linked to weight gain.
"Highly concentrated starches and sugars promote overeating, and the granddaddy of them all is sugar-sweetened beverages," said Ludwig, who runs the Optimal Weight for Life Program at Children's Hospital in Boston.
It's really no wonder America is becoming fatter: in the 1950s Americans drank four times as much milk as soda pop. Today, according to the Department of Agriculture, that ratio has become completely reversed! And in the past thirty years the obesity rate has doubled, so it's no surprise that the Centers for Disease Control has reported that the obseity rate for teenagers has more than tripled. An ice cold coke, a big bowl of chips and the new Halo 3 video game... life is good, but it's gonna be pretty damn short.
Michael Jacobson, the head of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, says "Soda pop is a quintessential junk food. It's just pure calories, and no nutrients. It's like a bomb in our diet."
Jacobson and the CSPI are actively pushing for warning labels on the sides of soda cans, like the surgeon general's warning on cigarettes.
The biggest problem of all: it is simply the sheer number of calories in a soda pop. There are about 400 calories in a 32-ounce "extra-large" Coke (normal fast food serving size). That's nearly 25% of an average woman's needs for an entire day.
But here's where it gets really interesting... Scientists say that the body doesn't respond to liquid calories in the same way it would if those calories came in the form of a burger or fries or brownies. Appetite is controlled by a complex mix of hormones. Some signal the brain that your stomach is getting full. Others, including a hormone known as
ghrelin, signal it's time to eat again.
Ghrelin levels drop for a few hours after you have a nice juicy cheeseburger, but those levels DO NOT drop after you drink a Big Gulp Soda. Even if that soda contains more calories that the burger, according to Wayne Campbell, a professor in the Department of Foods and Nutrition at Purdue University.
"We're finding your hunger does not go down as far when you consume a beverage, as when you consume a solid," Campbell said. The result: Even though you've just dumped 400 calories into your system with the soft drink, you will polish off the burger too.
As if that bit of information isn't scary enough, it gets worse: The sugar in soda pop not only provides a massive dose of calories, but triggers a vicious appetite cycle, said Ludwig.
"It's rapidly absorbed, which raises blood sugar and in effect causes the body to panic." The body releases insulin to break down the sugar, "but the body overcompensates, and blood sugar drops below the fasting level," lower than it was in the first place.
Recognizing low blood sugar, the body releases ghrelin and other hormones, inducing hunger, inducing us to eat even more, Ludwig said.
So although there are many diet plans created to help one lose weight, many regimens and lifestyles tailored to each individual, and many opinions by many different people, there is one basic, proven and undeniable truth:
Giving up sugary soda for water will cause you to lose weight.
BETTER HEALTH NEWS - PAGE: ONE
TWO THREE
• Alarming Obesity Figures
• Sea Vegetables and the Elmination of Fat Cells
• Obesity Strongest Risk Factor For Colorectal Cancer Among Women
