The Voracious Thirst of Beverage Corporations

Let’s say just a few more words about soft drinks — a few words having to do with a very large study of 451,743 people of both sexes, from 10 European countries. JAMA Internal Medicine published a report saying,

Regular consumption of soft drinks — both sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened — was associated with a greater risk of all causes of death… Participants who drank two or more glasses of soft drinks per day had a higher risk of mortality than those who consumed less than one glass per month.

In other words, this swill not only makes people fat, it makes them deceased. Sugar-sweetened soft drinks, when one or more glasses per day are consumed, are associated with deaths from diseases of the liver, appendix, intestines, and pancreas. The artificially-sweetened stuff, when two or more glasses per day are consumed, is associated with mortality from diseases of the circulatory system.

That report followed close on the heels of a study from the University of Cambridge, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Milan’s University of Bocconi, and U.S. Right to Know. Together, these institutions showed how the Coca-Cola Company has “systematically violated all of the principles contained in its own Declaration of Transparency.”

The findings, according to slowfood.com, have to do with…

[…] contractual agreements that authorize the company to suppress or manipulate the results of research funded, even partially, by certain public institutions in the United States and Canada… Imagine a corporate giant in the world food industry that has the freedom to preview, interrupt, set conditions for, or manipulate scientific research about its products…

Numerous metaphors are available — it’s like letting the fox guard the henhouse; it’s like letting a corrupt police department investigate itself; it is in fact exactly like Coke entering into contracts with scientific researchers that “give the company the power to manipulate or withhold health research about its products.”

The essential element

Childhood Obesity News has mentioned the importance of water in maintaining general health and keeping weight down. Of course, every so often another source confirms how vital water is.

For instance, less than a year ago, research done by Pennsylvania State University’s Water, Health and Nutrition Laboratory compiled information on nearly 8,400 children in an age range of two years to 19 years. The researchers found that very many American kids don’t drink water at all — but (surprise!) they do drink sugar-sweetened beverages.

This was not the first survey to conclude that over time, the extra calories from sugary drinks increase the risk of childhood obesity. Study author Asher Rosinger reiterated that water is the healthiest beverage for anyone to drink, adding,

Kids should drink water every day, and it should be the first option [parents] go to when their kids are thirsty.

Here is the horror story: No matter how sincerely they may believe that water is better in every way, there are now places on earth where people find that sweetened beverages are easier to get, and cheaper, than drinking water.

(To be continued…)

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “It doesn’t matter if it’s sugary or diet: New study links all soda to an early death,” WashingtonPost.com, 09/04/19
Source: “Coca-Cola “Opens Happiness” But Shuts The Mouths Of Researchers,” SlowFood.com, 06/11/19
Source: “Drinking Less Water Is Linked To Obesity In Kids: Study,” Daddyhood.net, 04/24/19
Image source: princesse.charli, licensed under CC BY 2.0 

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The Book

OVERWEIGHT: What Kids Say explores the obesity problem from the often-overlooked perspective of children struggling with being overweight.

About Dr. Robert A. Pretlow

Dr. Robert A. Pretlow is a pediatrician and childhood obesity specialist. He has been researching and spreading awareness on the childhood obesity epidemic in the US for more than a decade.
You can contact Dr. Pretlow at:

Presentations

Dr. Pretlow’s invited presentation at the American Society of Animal Science 2020 Conference
What’s Causing Obesity in Companion Animals and What Can We Do About It

Dr. Pretlow’s invited presentation at the World Obesity Federation 2019 Conference:
Food/Eating Addiction and the Displacement Mechanism

Dr. Pretlow’s Multi-Center Clinical Trial Kick-off Speech 2018:
Obesity: Tackling the Root Cause

Dr. Pretlow’s 2017 Workshop on
Treatment of Obesity Using the Addiction Model

Dr. Pretlow’s invited presentation for
TEC and UNC 2016

Dr. Pretlow’s invited presentation at the 2015 Obesity Summit in London, UK.

Dr. Pretlow’s invited keynote at the 2014 European Childhood Obesity Group Congress in Salzburg, Austria.

Dr. Pretlow’s presentation at the 2013 European Congress on Obesity in Liverpool, UK.

Dr. Pretlow’s presentation at the 2011 International Conference on Childhood Obesity in Lisbon, Portugal.

Dr. Pretlow’s presentation at the 2010 Uniting Against Childhood Obesity Conference in Houston, TX.

Food & Health Resources