Summer is approaching, children will be out of school, and parents can have more control over what their children eat and drink. No longer is childhood (or adult) obesity a joking matter. It is becoming a matter of life or death for individuals, and perhaps even for our country.
I recently read statistics that said 40 percent of Arkansas children are overweight. There are simple solutions to this massive problem. A study published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine concludes that there is a simple and effective way to reduce the excess intake of calories causing childhood overweight and obesity, as well as contributing to cavities and other health problems. No, the solution is not a new drug – it is simply drinking water instead of sugared sweetened beverages (SSBs).
Researchers from Columbia University and Harvard schools of public health authored the study and concluded that water is an important remedy for obesity. They analyzed what children and teens reported they ate and drank. They then estimated what substituting water for SSBs would mean to the total energy intake of youngsters between the ages of two and 19. The result? Drinking water instead of sugary drinks could eliminate an average of 235 excess calories per day among children and adolescents. Making this one simple change would result in 24 pounds of weight loss in a year.
Most Americans are so hooked on sweet drinks that you may be thinking just drink diet sodas and that should do it. Not so! Even though diet drinks may seem like a great guilt free pleasure; there are no sugars, and no calories, and we all know that calories are what matter. So what more could we ask for? Well, actually a lot. The artificial sweeteners which are used in diet sodas and other diet products are really not all they are cracked up to be.
Studies from Purdue University to the University of Texas have proven that rats and humans who use sugar substitutes actually gain more weight than those who stay with SSBs.
Why do those drinking diet sodas gain more weight? One conclusion is that using artificial sweeteners blunts the response to sweet taste by breaking the link between sweetness and calories. Therefore, the body tries get the calories that it missed in sweet tasting food by eating more calories from other sources.
“The data clearly indicate that consuming a food sweetened with no-calorie saccharin can lead to greater body-weight than would consuming the same food sweetened with a higher-calorie sugar,” the authors wrote.
Other researchers indicated that we don’t know what all the harmful effects are of dumping so much artificial stuff into our bodies. This is bad news for everyone who had hoped they were doing something good for their body by using artificial sweeteners.
About 90 percent of U.S. children and teens currently consume sweetened beverages daily, including soda, fruit drinks, punches, sports drinks, and sweetened tea. Calories in these drinks can add up to as much as 10 percent or more of the youngsters’ total daily intake. Researchers found no evidence that they will increase their consumption of other foods and beverages when all these sweetened drinks are replaced by water. That translates into a significant reduction in calorie intake.
“This study shows the substantial impact that replacing sugar-sweetened beverages with water could have,” stated C. Tracy Orleans, senior scientist and distinguished fellow at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which co-funded the study along with the Center for Disease Control. “Reversing the rise in childhood obesity requires finding approaches like this to close the gap between daily energy intake and daily energy expenditure. Changes such as this one can potentially add up to significant benefits for the population as a whole.”
If you want your children to have a healthier more productive school year when school resumes in August, take advantage of the opportunity summer offers you to teach them the benefits of drinking water instead of other drinks. Your young children and grandchildren are watching you and they will pick up on your habits. Even if your children are not overweight, the habits formed in childhood are carried over into adulthood when they are likely to cause health challenges and obesity. Get the sweetened and diet drinks out of your home and have plenty of refreshing water for those thirsty summer days.
In order to develop the water habit, measure the amount you drink. We need half our weight in ounces of water each day. If your child weighs 100 pounds, s/he needs 50 ounces of water daily. That is a quart plus a little over two more cups. Set an example for you child. You will all feel better and weight will start to drop off. It’s the most simple and inexpensive way to lose excess weight and start to build health.
(Janice Norris lives in Heber Springs, has a B.S. in home economics from Murray State University, taught home economics, owned and operated health food stores in Illinois and Heber Springs, has taught numerous health and nutrition classes, and wrote a weekly newspaper column in Illinois for 15 years. She can be reached at janicenorris34@yahoo.com)
