TEENS

New Study Documents the Detrimental Impact of Teen Beverage Choices
(04/2005)

To combat the escalating rates of childhood obesity, parents should go beyond what's on their children's plate and look at what's filling their glass, suggests a study that was presented at the Experimental Biology scientific conference.

The study found that no other single food provides more calories to a teenager's diet than sodas and fruit drinks. In all, these sweet drinks provide about 13 percent of a teenager's total calories -- more than cakes, cookies and other sugary foods. Sodas and fruit drinks are also the single leading source of added sugars in a teen's diet, providing more than half of all added sugars they consume.