NUTRITION STUDY Anti-soda program yields reduction in obesity

The activities stressed good nutrition and the consumption of fewer soft drinks.
LONDON (AP) -- School programs discouraging carbonated drinks appear to be effective in reducing obesity among children, a new study suggests.
A high intake of sweetened carbonated drinks is blamed for contributing to childhood obesity, and there is a growing movement against soft drinks in schools. But until now, there have been no studies showing that efforts to cut children's soft drink consumption would do any good.
The study, outlined this week on the Web site of the British Medical Journal, found that a one-year "ditch the fizz" campaign discouraging both sweetened and diet soft drinks led to a decrease in the percentage of elementary schoolchildren who were overweight or obese.
Industry comments
Representatives of the soft drink industry contested the implications of the results.
The study "reduced the average daily consumption of carbonated soft drinks by about 150 milliliters, or 35 calories -- half the reduction was in diet carbonated soft drinks. This represents about 2 percent of a child's calorie intake, not a significant amount," the British Soft Drink Association said in a statement.
The investigators studied 644 children, ages 7 to 11, in six primary schools in England, during the 2001-2002 school year. Half the classes participated in a program discouraging both regular and diet sodas and stressing the benefits of a healthy diet; the other half did not.
All pupils kept a diary of their soft drink consumption over one Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the beginning of the experiment and again for another three days at the end.
"They were told that by decreasing sugar consumption, they would improve overall well-being, and that by reducing the consumption of diet carbonated drinks, they would benefit dental health," said the scientists, diabetes doctors and nurses at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital in southern England.
The program involved a one-hour activities session given to each participating class four times during the school year.
The numbers
The percentage of overweight and obese children increased by 7.5 percent in the group that did not participate and dipped by 0.2 percent among those who did.
Consumption of soft drinks dropped by 0.6 glasses a day among the targeted children, but increased by 0.2 glasses a day among the children outside the program.
It was not possible to prove whether the weight improvements were linked to the decline in soda consumption, because the children may have changed other aspects of their diet.
But experts said the important point was that the program reduced obesity rates through nutrition education.