Do sparkling beverages or other sweetened drinks contribute to the childhood obesity problem?
All calories count, no matter what their source, and must be balanced with the energy used by our bodies. This includes sparkling beverages as well as other sources of calories. However, no one food or beverage should be blamed for the obesity problem when in fact so many factors contribute to the problem. There have been several studies examining the relationship between sparkling beverage consumption by young people and weight gain. A number of studies failed to show a relationship between increased body mass index (BMI) and sparkling beverage intake. For example, a study published in 2004 by Virginia Tech researchers concluded that, “…consumption of regular carbonated sparkling beverages and fruit drinks/ades two beverages widely hypothesized to be positively associated with BMI were not statistically significant in any of the models.”1 Another recent study involving over 100,000 school-aged children in 34 countries published in 2005 also failed to find a relationship between spar
