Cutting down on sugary drinks can reap benefits

Cutting down on sugary drinks can reap benefits


A cold soft drink is hard to resist … especially on a hot day. The trouble is, sugar-sweetened sodas, sports drinks, and even flavored milk and coffee are among the largest sources of added sugar in the U.S. diet.

And that is bitter news.

Added sugar does not necessarily cause diabetes, or raise fat levels in the bloodstream and lower good cholesterol, but research shows that it is associated with all of them.

And what else is associated with sugar consumption? Teenagers, of course.

Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say about 80 percent of young people between ages 12 and 19 drink a sugar-sweetened beverage every day. For some, it accounts for as much as 28 percent of their daily calories.

But researchers at The Ohio State University have discovered teens can drastically reduce their sugar consumption … especially when they challenge each other.

In an effort called the “Sodabriety” challenge, students at two rural high schools created marketing campaigns and a daily message about sugary drinks that was broadcast during the day’s announcements.

Students wrote down how many beverages they drank each day. Soda was the elixir of choice for more than 90 percent of the students.

But when the logs were tallied, students had worked wonders weaning themselves away from sugar.

They reduced the number of days per week that they drank sugar-sweetened drinks by nearly 30 percent during the course of the study.

Although water was not suggested as a substitute for sweet drinks, water consumption rose to about five-and-a-half servings per day among the adolescents.

That in itself has health benefits. Water energizes muscles, makes it easier to control calories, washes toxins out of the body and keeps your skin hydrated.

What could be sweeter than that?

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