Beverage Industry Disputes Soda Study Findings

Jan 16 2012 --- In response to "Sucrose-sweetened beverages increase fat storage in the liver, muscle and visceral fat deposit: a 6-month randomized intervention study," a paper published online ahead of print in the February issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the American Beverage Association issued the following statement:

 

"This is a Danish study of just 47 already overweight people, which the authors themselves acknowledge limits ‘the power' of their analysis. In fact, the findings cannot prove cause and effect, nor can they be applied to the public at-large.

 

Let's be clear - there is nothing unique about soda, whether sweetened with sucrose or HFCS, when it comes to obesity or other obesity-related health conditions such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease or metabolic syndrome. All this study shows is the need for controlling weight gain by balancing the calories we take in from all foods and beverages with those we burn through physical activity. Those are the keys to a balanced, healthy and active lifestyle.

 

“The authors intentionally started the intervention with already overweight people. In addition, the authors added nearly 500 calories a day to the diet of already overweight or obese people with no reduction of other calories. This in no way reflects the real world.”

 

The researchers, led by Dr. Bjrn Richelsen at Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark asked people to drink either a liter of water, milk, diet cola or regular cola each day for six months.

 

The 47 people who participated in the study were all overweight or obese.

 

Richelsen said his team chose to study this group because they anticipated overweight or obese people would be more sensitive to dietary changes than people of normal weight.

 

At the end of the study the regular cola drinkers ended up with 25 percent more fat surrounding their organs, and just about doubled the amount of fat in the liver and muscle.

 

Such increases "are in most studies associated with an enhanced risk for developing the metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes...cardiovascular diseases, and non-alcoholic liver diseases," Richelsen said.