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Too much soda does make children fat, study finds

By Steve Infanti Scripps Howard News Service
July 22, 2003

Q: My child drinks a great deal of soda. My mother says this will make
him fat. Does soda contribute to weight gain in children?

A: Too much soda and other sugar-filled drinks make children fat. That
is the message of a two-month study by nutritionists at Cornell
University. Children who drank more than 12 ounces of sweetened drinks
gained significantly more weight than children who drank less than six
ounces a day. That's because children do not reduce how much food they
eat at meals for the calories they consume in sweetened drinks. The
more sweetened drinks they consumed, the greater their daily caloric
intake and the greater the weight gain.

Nutritionists also worry that soda might be crowding out bone-healthy
milk on the menu and might even leach calcium out of growing bones.

"Soft drinks taken in excess may result in excessive phosphorus in the
diet and that, in turn, can result in low blood calcium levels," says
Dr. Lisa Ritchie, assistant professor of family and consumer sciences
at Harding University in Searcy, Ark. "The body will respond by
pulling calcium from the bone to increase the amount in the blood."