Children and Carbonated Soft Drinks

Killing Them Sweetly

Did you know that a 12oz (355ml) can of carbonated soft drink contains about 10-12 teaspoons of sugar? That's between 140-160 calories per can. What else is in a soft drink? The sugar is usually in the form of high fructose corn syrup mixed with water, flavourings, colouring, acids (such as citric or phosphoric), and often caffeine.

Soft drink use among our children is on the rise. Today's teen typically drinks three times the amount of soft drinks that teens twenty years ago drank. This is a concern for several reasons:

* increased fizzy drink consumption typically results in an increased consumption of caffeine,
* increased sugar consumption is linked to increased levels of tooth decay,
* increase in calories without any nutritional benefit,
* eating patterns established in childhood are usually carried over into adulthood,
* childhood obesity is on the rise.

Studies have shown that caffeine interferes with the absorption of calcium. So, teens and kids replacing milk or other phytonutrient rich juices with soda have double the consequences since calcium intake is minimized and the absorption of any available calcium is decreased by excessive carbonated soft drink consumption.

Here are a couple of tasty and nutritious drinks to substitute next time your teen reaches for a carbonated soft drink:

* Dilute 100% fruit juice with sparkling water
* Keep sports bottles filled with icy water
* Stock up on thirst quenching fruits like grapes and melons

Despite the lack of nutrition provided by carbonated soft drinks, kids do enjoy the flavour and should feel free to enjoy them in moderation. Fizzy drinks can have a place in a healthy diet as long as they are not substituting for more nutritious beverages.

The grim reality is that carbonated soft drinks are a major source of sugar in the diets of young children throughout the world. So as the vendors of fizzy sugar-water scramble to defend or abandon their efforts to sell soda in schools, how about we uncork some true facts?

Soft-drink drinking among young people is indeed linked to tooth decay -- the culprit is not only sugar. The New York Times reported that the phosphorus in cola can make calcium less available: "A series of studies by Dr Grace Wyshak at the Harvard School of Public Health has found about a fivefold higher rate of bone fractures among physically active teenagers who consume the most colas."

According to David Ludwig, an obesity expert at Children's Hospital in Boston, who helped write a new study on fizzy drink consumption, "It is not uncommon for teenagers to receive 500 to 1000 calories per day from sugar-sweetened drinks. These drinks may be easy to over-consume, because calories in liquid form seem to be less filling than calories in solid form."

And don't think you can get off the hook by drinking those "healthy" uncarbonated fruit drinks, which also have plenty of sugar. In fact, soft drinks ~ carbonated and uncarbonated ~ are a major contributor to the ongoing epidemic of childhood obesity.

Copyright 2003-2005 Azlan Adnan Legal Notice