Researchers say that limiting the amount of juice children drink -- and emphasizing water instead -- can help prevent risk for obesity. Photo by silviarita /Pixabay
On any given day, 1 in 5 American youngsters don't drink any water at all, a new survey shows.
And those who don't end up consuming almost twice as many calories from sugar-sweetened beverages.
That, investigators warn, translates into an extra 100 calories per day, which over time can raise the risk for becoming overweight or obese.
"Drinking water is the healthiest beverage to drink," said study author Asher Rosinger, director of the Water, Health and Nutrition Laboratory at Pennsylvania State University. "Water is an essential nutrient that is critical to proper physiological and cognitive functioning."
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By contrast, sugary drinks "are problematic because they have been linked to many negative health conditions, such as weight gain, dental caries [cavities], and type 2 diabetes," said Rosinger. He noted that current guidelines recommend limiting daily intake of added sugars to less than 10 percent of all calories consumed.
"Kids should drink water every day, and it should be the first option [parents] go to when their kids are thirsty," Rosinger said.
In the study, data was collected from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys between 2011 and 2012 and between 2015 and 2016.
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About 8,400 children (aged 2 to 19) reported whether they drank water each day (although amounts were not quantified), and how much of sugar-sweetened beverages they routinely consumed.
The latter included all non-diet sodas, sweetened fruit juices, sports drinks, energy drinks, and/or presweetened tea and coffee drinks. (Zero-calorie diet sodas and drinks, 100 percent fruit juices, and/or unsweetened coffee and teas were excluded.)
Among the 1 in 5 who didn't drink any water daily, sugared-drink calories totaled 200, on average, compared with 100 calories a day among water drinkers.
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Sugared-drink habits varied somewhat by race, however. For example, white non-water drinkers were found to consume more additional calories from sugared drinks than Hispanic non-water drinkers (123 extra calories per day versus 61 extra calories per day).
Regardless, are such relatively low amounts of excess calories really a big deal? Yes, say investigators, who point out that taking in an extra 3,500 calories means packing on an extra pound. That breaks down to just a little more than a month of 100 extra calories per day.
Rosinger did note that sugary drink consumption among American children has dropped over the last 15 years. But he added that "there are still pockets and sub-populations that have high consumption levels. [So] it's critical to identify which kids are particularly at risk for high sugar-sweetened beverage intake, since this can lead to these negative health effects."
On that front, Rosinger noted that water insecurity due to contamination "is a growing problem in the U.S., so we need to keep that in mind as important context, especially when it comes to parents who may be giving their kids soda or juice because they distrust the water. Therefore, it's critical to ensure that everyone has access to safe, clean water."
The findings were published April 22 in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.
Lona Sandon is program director in the department of clinical nutrition at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. She said the findings "confirm what I have seen in practice: If someone is not drinking water, they are drinking something else, likely soft drinks or other sugary drinks." She was not involved with the study.
Sandon's advice to parents? "Provide water and low-fat plain milk at the table. Keep flavored milk only for special occasions. Avoid purchasing soft drinks or other fruit juice-type drinks that are laden with added sugar. Try no-calorie, flavored seltzer water instead. Make a no-soft drink or other sugary drinks rule in the household. Save them for special occasions. Keep 100 percent fruit juice to 1 cup per day. Keep sports drinks for sports, not with meals, and only if the child will be exercising for more than an hour."
And dump the energy drinks, Sandon concluded. "Kids do not need them."
The U.S. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion offers more on healthy diet guidelines.
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Theguywhoimploded on April 23rd, 2019 at 13:22 UTC »
Water is easily the most accessible resource for students to help them with their day. Fatigue, headaches, and often their moods can be picked up if they just stayed hydrated. As a track & field and cross country coach, my athletes' water intake is always the first thing I address for practice. However, none of them drink enough water during the day. It's rare, and I mean rare, that I see any student drinking water during school. Usually it would be the smart athletes that I see drinking an adequate amount. For the most part, the students tell me that they don't like water. Then they eat the super greasy and salty school lunch. It's just another aspect of student lifestyle that can stifle progress.
You want to know what has worked for me in motivating many students to drink? Tell them about kidney stones. Show them videos of it. No high schooler wants to think about the possibility of needing to one day piss out sharp stones.
TittyMongoose42 on April 23rd, 2019 at 13:06 UTC »
On a very basic level, this makes perfect sense, and I don't want to seem like I'm some conspiracy theorist slamming Big Sugar or Big Soda or Big Corn or what have you, but it all comes down to what companies are incentivized to advertise. In doing a little extra reading on the topic, I came across this article, and though it's a little dated (most of the cited data is now about 10 years old), it's no less prescient since it describes how we got here, from a marketing standpoint.
In an FTC study from 2006, it was found that:
Add to that the burgeoning notion of "healthy" soda alternatives manufactured by the same soda companies, e.g. "fortified" waters containing vitamins and minerals, when there is no evidence of these deficiencies among Americans. One example: CocaCola’s Diet Coke Plus contains vitamins B4, B6, and B12, along with zinc and magnesium. Only people who are sick and really poor (and sometimes iron-deficient, pregnant women) need supplements. This is misleading marketing and is deluding the public into thinking these things are healthier.
TheTurtleVirus on April 23rd, 2019 at 12:15 UTC »
Can we talk about diet sodas? What the deal with them? Are they as bad as regular soda? I don't see how they can be if they have no sugar.