The increase in consumption of sugar-added beverages over recent decades may be partly
responsible for the obesity epidemic among U.S. adolescents. Our aim was to evaluate
the relationship between BMI changes and intakes of sugar-added beverages, milk, fruit
juices, and diet soda.
Our prospective cohort study included >10,000 boys and girls participating in the
U.S. Growing Up Today Study. The participants were 9 to 14 years old in 1996 and completed
questionnaires in 1996, 1997, and 1998. We analyzed change in BMI (kilograms per meter
squared) over two 1-year periods among children who completed annual food frequency
questionnaires assessing typical past year intakes. We studied beverage intakes during
the year corresponding to each BMI change, and in separate models, we studied 1-year
changes in beverage intakes, adjusting for prior year intakes. Models included all
beverages simultaneously; further models adjusted for total energy intake.
Consumption of sugar-added beverages was associated with small BMI gains during the
corresponding year (boys: +0.03 kg/m2 per daily serving, p = 0.04; girls: +0.02 kg/m2,
p = 0.096). In models not assuming a linear dose-response trend, girls who drank 1
serving/d of sugar-added beverages gained more weight (+0.068, p = 0.02) than girls
drinking none, as did girls drinking 2 servings/d (+0.09, p = 0.06) or 3+ servings/d
(+0.08, p = 0.06). Analyses of year-to-year change in beverage intakes provided generally
similar findings; boys who increased consumption of sugar-added beverages from the
prior year experienced weight gain (+0.04 kg/m2 per additional daily serving, p =
0.01). Children who increased intakes by 2 or more servings/d from the prior year
gained weight (boys: +0.14, p = 0.01; girls +0.10, p = 0.046). Further adjusting our
models for total energy intake substantially reduced the estimated effects, which
were no longer significant.
Consumption of sugar-added beverages may contribute to weight gain among adolescents,
probably due to their contribution to total energy intake, because adjustment for
calories greatly attenuated the estimated associations.
Copyright 2004 NAASO