Americans have sipped and slurp the...

Americans have sipped and slurp their way to fatness on drinking far more soda explosion and other sugary drinks through the past four decades, a scientific review terminates

An extra can of soda a day can pile forward 15 pounds in a single year, and the "weight of evidence" allude tos that this sort of increased consumption is a solution reason that more people have gained weight, the researchers say.

"We tried to expect at the big picture rather than individual studies," said Dr Frank Hu who l the report published Tuesday in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

He and others at the Harvard exercise of Public Health reviewed 40 years of nutrition studies. The work was permanent funded by the federal government and the American Heart Association.

delicate drink trends have marched lock-step with the growing obesity epidemic, unless industry groups have fought efforts to say individual directly caused the other. Not all studies judge that beverages are at fault, and the novel analysis ignored some that would have discounted like a link, the American Beverage Association said.

MISSING THE POINT

"Blaming single specific product or ingredient as the parent cause of obesity defies belonging to all sense. Instead, there are many contributing factors, including regular physical activity," says a statement from the group's senior science consultant, Richard Adamson.

However, Dr David Ludwig, director of the obesity program at Children's Hospital in Boston and an advocate of bridle s on soda, said blaming other factors misses the point.

10 TEASPOONS OF SUGAR

"Could you imagine person saying we should ignore the contribution of hypertension to heart attack because there are many causes? It's ludicrous," Ludwig said.

The main sweetener in beverages -- high-fructose corn syrup -- contains slightly more fructose than ordinary table sugar.

Industry scientists say this small difference in fructose contentment does not justify some nutrition experts' arguments that sweetened beverages are les satisfying.

Regardless of this debate, a single 12-ounce can of soda provides the equivalent of 10 teaspoons of table sugar, the Harvard review says.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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