Study: Soda Does Not Make Kids Fat

April 4 -- Drinking soda pop does not make kids overweight, according to a new study.

The study refutes a separate study released in the medical journal Lancet which said soda pop contributed to the growing number of overweight kids.

Researchers at the Georgetown Center for Food and Nutrition Policy looked at four studies concerning the effect of sugar-infused carbonated beverages on children and adults. Their findings suggest that soda pop is not the culprit to bulging waistlines.

"The cold hard reality is that people are eating too much and exercising too little," Storey said.

Another doctor, Maureen Storey, Associate Director of the Georgetown Center, says: "Portion sizes have expanded dramatically and it is simply wrong to blame increases in obesity on food or beverages that contain carbohydrates."

Two Ounces Does Not Make a Difference

In closely scrutinizing studies done by the National Health and Nutrition Institute and the USDA, researchers found that teens who drink soda pop between the age of 12 and 16 drink only about a can of soda pop a day. Those teens also were not less likely to be physically active and they were not substituting soda for milk.

"In the studies, twenty percent of the kids didn't drink any soda," Storey said. "Thirty percent drank less than a can of soda and only one out of 20 teens drank three and a half or more cans a day. We found that overweight children drank only about 2 ounces more soda pop than children who weren't overweight. If you're seeking out a villain for why children are overweight, it's not 2 ounces of soda pop."

The Lancet study looked at children who were 11 to 12 years old, a time when kids typically fluctuate in size greatly, added Storey.

"They tend to get chubby and they grow, they get chubby and they grow, it's a weird age," said Dr. Maureen Storey.

More Kids Overweight

The prevalence of obesity among children in the United Statesincreased by 100 percent between 1980 and 1994.

Dr. Philip James, chairman of the International Obesity TaskForce, an independent worldwide scientific organization which wasnot connected with any of the studies, said the evidence indicatesthat sugar is slightly less fattening than fat, but that sugar indrinks can be deceptive because the beverages are less filling thanfood.