News Flash: Sugary Drinks Make You Fat

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[Junk Food]
Department of Duh Researchers have published a new study with astonishing results: guzzling large amounts of flavored sugar-water is making Americans fat.

Researchers say that just drinking one extra soft drink per day can pack on 15 pounds of unsightly fat in a year. Since Americans are drinking more of these beverages than ever before, they may have found one of the primary causes of the current obesity epidemic.

The average soft drink contains the equivalent of 10 teaspoons of table sugar. Americans drank a full 135% more soft drinks in 2001 than in 1977. (For anyone doing the math, that's one-and-a-third more cans of coke per day, which should mean an extra 20 pounds per year...in 20 years, that would be 400 pounds. Think of that next time you reach for a can of carbonated syrup dilute.)

There's also some evidence that the primary sweetener in most soft drinks, high-fructose corn syrup, does not increase production of insulin or leptin, a substance that helps you feel full and stop eating, the way that regular sugar does. The result? You eat more than you would if you washed your food down with 10 spoonfuls of sugar, and you increase your risk of diabetes.

Surprisingly, makers of sweetened drinks whine that their products aren't the only reason people are getting fatter. And they're right...reduced exercise, increased dining at fast food joints and restaurants, and access to ever-more-tempting food products(super-premium ice cream,anyone?) are playing their part as well. But what difference does that make? Cut out the soda pop, and you'll be skinnier than you would have been by 15 pounds a year, even if you're still gaining from all the other crap you eat and all the hours you spend sitting on your butt.

More details about the study.

 

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