Over the past 40 years the consumption of soda has increased substantially, much to the pleasure of the soda manufacturers; however, so have the ill effects of its over consumption.

The fact is that today kids consume way too much sugar as compared to 40 years ago. Teenagers are drinking less milk and, as a result, are getting less calcium. They are getting about 40% of their energy/sugar calories from soft drinks.

Currently, teens are drinking half as much milk as soda as compared to 20 years ago. There have been research studies which show that teenage girls who require 1300mg of calcium/day are only getting about 800mg. This lack of calcium can predispose one to broken bones and osteoporosis. Calcium is also important for bone development up to the age of 18.

It is a natural fact that teenage girls who drink too much soda have a much greater risk of breaking a bone or developing osteoporosis. Three cans of soda/day poses a serious risk for teenage boys. Males in the 12 to 29 age range are known to be the single largest group of people who indulge in soda. The risks to one’s health from the over consumption of soda include tooth decay and destruction, osteoporosis, obesity, kidney stones, and diabetes.

Soda contents include caffeine, acid, additive dye, and a high fructose corn syrup. An average can of soda has about 10 to 12 tsp of sugar or 40 to 48 grams of phosphoric or carbonic acid.

The fructose syrup contains zero nutritional value. Caffeine, which is stimulant that is mildly addictive, causes calcium excretion that can result in an increased risk of kidney stones and osteoporosis.

Most people think that the sugar in the soda is bad and that is what causes tooth decay. However, the research shows that the real danger is in the acid. The phosphoric or carbonic acid dissolves the calcium out of the enamel leaving it a softened matrix for bacteria to enter the teeth and cause wholesale tooth destruction. Therefore, sugar free sodas are not a viable answer.

Most individuals who drink a lot of soda range from some minor decalcification of teeth, with white bands of softened enamel which encircle the teeth at or near the gum line to cases where numerous teeth are totally destroyed from decay.

Many of these individuals are students who study while continuously sipping a soda which creates an acid bath for their teeth. Don’t forget the fact that the sugar itself is also converted to acid by the bacteria on the teeth. Coupled all this with poor dental hygiene and you have a recipe for an oral disaster in the making.

The public should be educated regarding the ill effects and the soda companies need to take some responsibility since they insist on glorifying drinking their brands as being a sort of cool. So the next time your kids or you drink a soda, be aware and concerned. Always use moderation. Don’t bathe your teeth in acid, rinse with water and practice good oral hygiene.

If you consume sports drinks, it may be best to wait thirty minutes before brushing your teeth. According to a recent study, citric acid in sports drinks weaken tooth enamel – brushing too soon after sipping a sports drink may increase the risk of tooth erosion.

The study, from NYU dental researchers found that consuming popular sports drinks softens the teeth, especially if you consume too many. Dr. Mark Wolff, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Cariology & Comprehensive Care at New York University College of Dentistry tells us this is the first study linking citric acid in sports drinks to erosion of the teeth.

Teeth from cows were used for the study, which resemble human teeth. The dentists cut the cow’s teeth in half and submerged one-half in water, and the other half in a sports drink. The tooth subjected to the sports drink showed a significant amount of erosion and softening, probably from the citric acid in the sports drink.

Several top-selling s drinks were used to prove that the sports drinks cause teeth to erode. The scientists submerged five teeth 75 to 90 minutes in order to approximate the amount of time human teeth are exposed to citric acid while sipping on sports drinks.

“To prevent tooth erosion, consume sports drinks in moderation, and wait at least 30 minutes before brushing your teeth, to allow softened enamel to re-harden,” says Dr. Wolff. He also suggests limiting sports drinks to avoid destruction of tooth enamel that leads to erosion and soft teeth. Your dentist can tell you if acid-neutralizing remineralizing toothpaste might protect your teeth from erosive tooth wear that can happen silently while sipping on your favorite sports drink.

Reference: nyu.edu

Frozen drinks are very popular especially during the summer when it could get really hot. So if you are planning to put up your own frozen drinks business, the best time to prepare yourself and your company is winter, but best time to sell frozen drinks is summer, because people are more likely to buy your products to cool them and relieve them from hot feeling.

You can opt to get a franchise from well-known frozen drink companies or you could start your own by getting some help with companies that offer lower fees for the frozen drinks machine rental. The second option will usually cost less than the first and these companies offer different kinds of business packages that will suit your needs and budget.

You could search online to see companies offering frozen drinks business packages and compare their prices and the inclusions of these prices. This way, you will be able to get the best deal for your business. They also offer financing options so you will not have to worry about the payment terms.

Most frozen drinks business packages comes with all the things you will need to start your frozen drink business. You will get frozen drink makers and other things you will need. You will also get the accessories and assistance your business will need. Choose a company that will offer to give you full assistance because it can be helpful if you will encounter unexpected problems regarding your frozen drink business.

You can set up you frozen drink machines on the beach where lots of people usually hang out during summer. It would be better if you will offer a wide variety of flavors so customers could have many different choices. You can have fruity flavors that are refreshing, delicious, and healthy at the same time for the figure-conscious men and women. For kids, you could offer vanilla, mocha, or chocolate flavors.

To attract more potential customers, you should make your products more attractive by presenting them in a nice way. Use glasses that will catch customers’ attention like a frosted glass or one that is uniquely shaped. Some also use colored glasses in vibrant hues to complement the color of the frozen drink.

Make it look more refreshing by adding some ice cubes. Customers will definitely like seeing ice on their drinks during the summer season. Just make sure that you don’t put too much ice cubes on the glass as it can melt and mix with the drink and will affect the flavor and taste of the drink.

Summer drinks will not be complete without lemon slices either placed on the rim of the glass or inside the glass with the frozen drink. This will give the frozen drink a fresher look. And don’t forget the traditional umbrella that goes perfectly with the frozen drink and lemon slice.

You’ll be surprised to know how much profit frozen drink mixes could bring you. The amount of money you have invested for the frozen drink machine rental will return to you after just a short period of time. So go ahead with your plan and make the most out of the summer by putting up your own frozen drinks business.

It is a common knowledge that protein is one of the important nutrients to our body. Carbohydrates, fat and protein are macronutrients. Our body needs a large amount of them compare to vitamins and minerals that are micronutrients. Our body does not store protein unlike fat and carbohydrates so therefore we need to supply them everyday. According to nutritionist, it is not necessary to eat protein foods everyday because we can get its benefits from better food sources like protein drinks.

Protein Drinks are usually associated with body building, endurance, weight loss or supplementation but no matter what is your interest, there is a protein drinks formulated that certainly suits your needs. High protein beverages have now become one of the fastest growing areas of health foods. The best protein drinks is fortified with all the needed nutrients and packed with benefits. It works on beefing up or slimming down, immunity enhancement and boosting endurance.

Our body is capable of making amino acids but not the essential amino acids. Essential amino acids can be achieved by eating quality protein foods. Quality protein foods are based on person’s age, weight, sex, activity level and overall health.

To ensure that your protein drink is nutritious and safe, you can prepare a homemade protein drinks for your family. Make your own protein drink by using protein powder combined with orange or grape juices. A fruity flavor like bananas, peaches and blueberries is great especially for children. Here is a suggested ingredients and procedure that will make a tasty and delicious homemade protein drinks.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup of frozen yogurt vanilla flavor or ice cream
• 1/4 medium-size ripe banana, peeled and sliced
• 1 cup evaporated milk
• 2 pecans, broken
• 1 tbsp of raw or toasted wheat germ
• 1 tbsp protein powder

Direction:

1. Put the frozen yogurt or ice cream, milk, banana, pecans, wheat gem and protein powder altogether in a mixer or blender.
2. Cover and blend them until all ingredients are mix thoroughly.
3. Serve and enjoy!

The main source of protein is the animal meat. However, eating them everyday is not advisable. Meat cannot be digested easily and it contains cholesterol which is harmful to health. Protein Drinks is the best alternative. It will sustain your daily protein requirements and can be digested easily. This is widely used by body builders, weight losers, athletes and people that are always on the go. On the other hand, protein drinks is not exclusively for them, it is for everyone.

There are different kinds of protein drinks available in the stores, supermarkets and online. In purchasing one, see to it that you read the nutritional facts posted in its label. By knowing the nutritional facts you can determine which product is suited to your age, sex, weight and taste. If you prefer to buy them online, there are websites that provide proper information about the product. Visit one of them and choose what best protein drinks are for you and your family.

There are many countries in the world, every of which has its own national drink, some even have more than one. Here you will find the most unusual of national drinks.

1. Portuguese National Drink
Yerba Mate or hierba mate or erva mate, in Portuguese (Ilex paraguariensis), or sometimes called simply mate, is a species of holly (family Aquifoliaceae) native to subtropical South America in northern Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and southern Brazil and Bolivia. It is used as a herbal tea.

Mate drinking
As with other brewed herbs, yerba mate leaves are dried, chopped, and ground into a powdery mixture. Unlike other brews, however, mate is traditionally sipped from a dried and carefully carved, hollow calabash, through a special metal straw (traditionally silver) called a bombilla. Bombilla usually means “light bulb” in Spanish, but locally it is “little pump” or “straw”.

Preparing the Mate
The method of preparing the mate infusion varies considerably from region to region, and it is hotly debated which method yields the finest outcome. However, nearly all methods have some common elements: the gourd is packed with an abundant amount of yerba, and very hot water (typically from 70–80 degrees Celsius [160–180 degrees Fahrenheit] and never boiling) is added.

2. Nicaragua National Drinks
Here are many national drinks that you will enjoy when you go to Nicaragua.
Some of them are: Fresh tropical fruit juice, Chicha de maíz and de jengibre (in order to make this drink you have to boil corn and then grind it with food coloring), Tiste (this is another unusual drink that you will have the opportunity to taste. It is made from corn and cocoa drink.
Another original drink is cacao. This is actually one of the favorite drinks in the world.

Here goes, a sampling of some of the more unusual national drinks.

3. Sosro Tehbotol National Drink
This is basically sweetened jasmine tea from Indonesia. It has a crisp, clean taste, flowery. It’s an iced tea, but doesn’t need lemon.

4. De Sarro & Torchia BibiCaffe National Drink
This is a carbonated, concentrated coffee. Espresso, caramel, vanilla with bubbles. Not too sweet, a bit of a kick, almost chocolaty. Cute small bottle. One of the best drinks.

5. Almdudler National Drink
Almdudler is the national soft drink of Austria. Tastes like a light lemonade with a sour apple flavor. The bottle design is pretty sharp, with two Almdudler-holics in funky hats looking straight from a Tin-Tin comic.

6. Fentiman’s: Five interesting flavors
Fentimans is a British maker of botanically brewed, slightly fermented beverages. These are microbrewed, hand crafted soda for grownups.

7. China Cola National Drink
A real novelty, this is a cola where the flavor is created by a careful mix of Chinese herbs. Seems like a lot of effort for what’s basically a coke.

8. Sprecher’s Orange Dream National Drink
From Wisconsin, this microbrewed orange soda comes in a hefty bottle with a cow mascot. It’s an orange cream with vanilla and honey.

9. Kombucha Wonder Drink
This Kombucha Wonder Drink is described as “A Sparkling Himalayan Tonic” and a “blend of jasmine tea with essence of Niagara grape”. It’s a kind of sweet and sour, like a musky grape juice. Kombucha is some kind of funky mushroom.

Healthy drinking is a vital part of our health. Learn what drinks are good and healthy choices, as well as tips for healthy drinking for your health. As you are convincing your family to decrease their sugary drink intake, you can introduce them to these better choices.

If you are healthy drinking soda, you are more likely to have a lower intake of important nutrients, such as vitamin C, vitamin A, folate, magnesium, and calcium. The decrease in calcium can result in reduced bone mass, which can contribute to broken bones in children and can possibly lead to osteoporosis later in life.

Some nutritionists say that healthy drinking high-fructose corn syrup causes weight gain by interfering with the body’s natural ability to suppress hunger feelings. For those who can’t do without their soda pop, natural varieties are growing in popularity and can be found at most health food markets. Many use cane juice to sweeten, because it is less processed but has many of the nutrients found in sugar cane. Others add no sweetener and instead let the real fruit ingredients do the job.

Healthy drinking – water.

Whether it is flat or fizzy, flavored or plain, water is a fundamental component of your family fitness plan and is the perfect beverage for everyone. Over 1 billion people worldwide have no access to safe drinking water. The United States is fortunate to have one of the best supplies of drinking water in the world. Although tap water that meets federal and state standards is generally safe to drink, threats to drinking water quality in the United States still exist. Outbreaks of drinking water-associated illness and water restrictions during droughts demonstrate that we cannot take our drinking water for granted.

Did you know that your tap drinking water may contain a number of contaminants from a range of sources that can make you ill? Some contaminants have an effect on the look, smell and taste of your drinking water, yet some will be unnoticeable and can potentially have more harmful effects on your health.

Healthy drinking – milk.

Low-fat and fat-free milk are healthful beverage alternatives. Next to water, low-fat or fat-free milk and soy milk are the best beverage options for your family healthy drinking. Milk contains calcium, which we often don’t get enough of, as well as protein. Soy milk is a great alternative to cow’s milk, especially if you are lactose intolerant, have problems with chronic upper respiratory infections (sinus infections or ear infections), have asthma, or are just looking to include more soy in your diet. Chocolate milk is healthy drink for an occasional treat; just try to control the amount of chocolate added to keep the sugar under control.

Healthy drinking – vegetable juice.

Healthy drinking of vegetable juice is a great low-calorie choice that offers antioxidants, such as vitamins A and C, and other nutrients such as lycopene, which has been linked to a reduced risk of prostate cancer. Eight ounces of vegetable juice has 2 grams of fiber, is very low in sugar, and has only 50 calories.

Healthy drinking – coffee drinks.

With the rise of the chain coffee houses has come the popularity of creamy coffee drinks that are chock full of sugar and calories You could easily get more than half of your daily calorie allowance from your coffee break. Fortunately, you don’t have to forgo your treat. There are many lower-calorie choices, such as a small café latte or cappuccino made with fat-free milk (about 120 calories). You could also try for healthy drinking a 12-ounce Chai tea with fat-free milk for about 170 calories. Choose from a selection of herbal teas or, of course, plain old zero-calorie black java. And instead of the muffins or cake, try a crunchy biscotti for around 120 calories.

Healthy drinking – 100 percent fruit juice.

100 percent fruit juice is just that — it is made solely from fruit with no sugar added. Healthy drinking of fruit juice has the added benefit of being full of the vitamins that are naturally found in fruit, such as vitamin C and folate. I would suggest limiting the total amount of juice for the day to 4 to 8 ounces.

Bradford and Airedale Community pharmacy development and clinical governance pharmacist from BAtPCT, Rachel Urban, mark out:

Top tips for babies’ healthy drinking

- Breast milk or infant formula should be the main drink for babies aged one and under
- Cooled boiled water is best if extra drinks are needed between meals
- Sugary drinks should never be served in a bottle
- Parents should not allow babies to use a bottle in bed
- Bottles should not be used by babies aged over 12 months
- Pure unsweetened fruit juice is a useful source of vitamin C and should be drunk with main meals or breakfast
- Squash, if given, should be served at mealtimes only and never in a feeding bottle
- Fizzy drinks – including diet drinks – should be discouraged
- Free-flow feeder cups should be used from six months
- Valve cups, anyway up and sip and seal cups are not recommended

Sometimes we want something to chew. Not too caloric and not too sweet. Jelly beans candies are most suitable for this purpose.
Jelly beans are a different flavored type of confectionery. Generally they have fruit taste and are made of sugar. They are small like groundnut. You can easy eat them at work or while moving. Nowadays jelly beans candy producers make also sugar free candies.

So you can buy a Bulk Jelly Beans and don’t worry about it… “Oh nuts” has many to choose from. But come time when it becomes too sweet. And we want to wash down candies with some drink. What one can drink with confectionery, particularly with jelly beans?

Juice
Kids love candy with juice. But don’t drink it with moderation with candies, if candies contain sugar and juice is acidic it can be not so good for your teeth.

Soda
You probably already know about mints and cola? Therefore be very careful mixing it with different candies. But I think there won’t be any problems with jelly beans. By the way, jelly beans may serve as an alternative to a cola beverage containing 50 gm of glucose, researches say.

Tea
Tea is good with any candies. Better to drink not so hot tea, it can be both black tea or fruit tea.

Coffee
You can try to drink coffee or cappuccino with jelly beans.

Water
Best water quality is that it can wash down absolutely everything, and even more.

What do you drink with jelly beans or after them?

Carbonated soft drinks are the single biggest source of calories in the American diet, providing about 7 percent of calories; adding in noncarbonated drinks brings the figure to 9 percent. Teenagers get 13 percent of their calories from carbonated and noncarbonated soft drinks.

While many different categories make up the American beverage product picture, carbonated soft drinks (CSDs) paint the broadest strokes. As the “granddaddy of them all,” carbonated soft drinks (CSD)s occupy a unique place in the hearts, minds and palates of the American consumer.

Still and carbonated soft drinks will also contain trace elements of minerals from their main ingredient, water, and other ingredients e.g. juices. Some are also fortified with vitamins, details of which will appear on the label.

History of Carbonated Soft Drinks

Soft drinks have been an anchor in American culture since the beginning of the twentieth century, but the roots of these beverages extend much further back in time.

The first carbonated soft drinks, which were named as such in order to clearly differentiate them from hard, alcoholic beverages, and the technology to make them were imported from the Europeans, who had discovered how to force carbon dioxide gas into water back in the sixteenth century.

The original bubbly drinks were carbonated mineral waters mimicking those found in therapeutic natural springs and the first of these were patented in the United States in 1810. Less than a decade later, the soda fountain was patented as well. By the mid-1800s, American chemists and pharmacists were concocting sweetened, flavored carbonated beverages.

Soft drinks now can be found most anywhere in the world, but nowhere are they as ubiquitous as in the United States, where 450 different types are sold and more than 2.5 million vending machines dispense them around the clock, including in our schools. The American Beverage Association says that, in 2004, 28 percent of all beverages consumed in the U.S. were carbonated soft drinks.

Why are Carbonated Soft Drinks a Concern for Health?

Excessive use of carbonated beverages, sports drinks and fruit drinks can impact bone health, oral health and lead to obesity in young people. The typical 12-ounce can of non-diet pop provides approximately 150 calories, nine teaspoons of sugar, and no minerals or vitamins.
Sports drinks and fruit drinks have similar amounts of sugar and calories but often have
some vitamins and minerals.

Because many carbonated soft drinks are high in caffeine, they are also mildly addictive, leading to increased consumption. Girls ages 12 to 19 years consume an average of 59 mg of caffeine per day and boys consume an average of 86 mg of caffeine per day. One can of cola contains 40 to 45 mg of caffeine.

The high acid and sugar content of pop provide a rich environment for dental decay. The high calorie content of pop may add to the increasing rate of obesity in youth. Overweight adolescents are more likely to become overweight adults.

As carbonated soft drinks tend to contain high amounts of both sugars and acids, they’re the worst possible combination for dental health.

A new study on the risk factors associated with nighttime heartburn found drinking carbonated soft drinks and the use of benzodiazepines, a commonly-prescribed class of sleeping pill, are among the strongest predictors of that painful burning sensation.

School-age girls who drink a lot of carbonated soft drinks are increasing their risk of osteoporosis.

Carbonated Soft drinks and bones health

There has been a theory that the phosphoric acid contained in some soft drinks (colas) displaces calcium from the bones, lowering bone density of the skeleton and leading to conditions such as osteoporosis and very weak bones. However, calcium metabolism studies by leading calcium and bone expert Dr. Robert Heaney determined that the net effect of carbonated soft drinks, (including colas, which use phosphoric acid as the acidulant) on calcium retention was negligible. He concluded that it is likely that colas prominence in observational studies is due to their prominence in the marketplace, and that the real issue is that people who drink a lot of soft drinks also tend to have an overall diet that is low in calcium.

Reducing consumption of carbonated soft drinks, replacing benzodiazepines with other types of sleeping pills, and losing weight can all help reduce nighttime heartburn.

“Real programmers drink too much coffee so that they will
always seem tense and overworked”.

Programming at a high level on a day to day basis requires grit, determination, and stimulants. To satisfy the third requirement, some programmers go with coffee, others prefer caffeinated beverages, and a few might try not-so-kosher stimulants.

Perhaps the most universally recognized tool for improving a professional programmer’s productivity is C. Not the C language, but the C additive, Caffeine.

We would begin with a definition:
Caffeine: a bitter alkaloid C8H10N4O2 found esp. in coffee, tea, and kola nuts and other healthy drinks and used medicinally as a stimulant and diuretic.

Pepsi Drink

Pepsi may be the choice of a new generation, but definitely *not* a new generation of programmers. Finishing dead last in performance and buried in the middle of the pack with respect to calories, Pepsi is a generally uninspired product. The user interface (taste) is distinctive, but its caffeine engine lacks the punch of the other products we surveyed.

Jolt Cola Drink

Jolt is playing its role as spoiler to the hilt. In the face of a huge tide of “caffeine-free” soft drinks, Jolt boasts that it has “all the sugar and twice the caffeine.” On the surface, at least, it seems as if the programmer’s ship has come in. Jolt’s user interface is good, containing the bite and “look and feel” of Classic Coke and winning the scouring test.

The classic caffeine-laden cola. Jolt is the favored drink of computer programmers everywhere. Double the caffeine of Coke in a variety of new flavors. Contrary to popular belief, Jolt doesn’t have any more sugar than regular soft drinks. Their new cans are resealable, to help keep the fizz in.(72mg in 12oz)

It is known that all real programmers drink only coke and eat only pizza – at least after more than 28 hours in front of a computer screen some people think. But only the greatest programmers drink cappuccino’s. Some of the computer programmers drink mint tea with pine nuts. Programmers drink loads of soda.

Cappuccino Drink

Cappuccino is an Italian, coffee-based drink prepared with espresso, hot milk, and milk foam. A cappuccino differs from a caffè latte—which is also from the Italian coffee menu—in that a latte is prepared with espresso and twice (or more) the amount of milk as a cappuccino and little or no milk foam. A cappuccino is traditionally served in a porcelain cup, which has far better heat retention characteristics than glass or paper. The foam on top of the cappuccino acts as an insulator and helps retain the heat of the liquid, allowing it to stay hotter longer. Cappuccino is the tasty and useful healthy drink which helps computer programmers not to sleep.

Coffee Drink

In line with the view that coffee is the most common drink for people to spill on their computers, it was also the most common drink for programmers.

It’s just so stereotypical to think of computer programmers drinking coffee all day, working late into the night. Caffeine is a stimulant, it reduces drowsiness and restores alertness, it also increases the capacity for mental and physical labor.

French is a popular coffee among programmers because doesn’t need a lot of care; like commercial software. Its exciting taste has inspired thousands of programmers in writing incredible software, written in the very first ours of a day. Windows for example was written at 5:00 o’clock in the morning, Due to coffee! A result is guaranteed.

It’s said that programmers need coffee to function.

Mountain Dew

Mountain Dew is an essential ingredient for successful computer programming. Mountain Dew is so popular with computer programmers and gamers or anyone else who doesn’t want to sleep.

The Code Red worm was named for the fact that anti-virus software programmers drank Mountain Dew “Code Red” to stay awake while working on the software update that would protect against this threat.

However, some studies have linked drinking soft drinks with risk factors for heart disease, but this study suggests that diet soft drinks sweetened with artificial sweeteners are just as likely to be linked as high calorie drinks sweetened with sugar.

Water

Water – the most useful drink for programmers. Not only is it good for you and will keep your mind off soda/coffee/alcohol…but you’ll start going to the bathroom more often and you’ll burn off a couple of calories walking there!

Source: WebMD

Diet sodas and other noncalorie and low-calorie foods may be contributing to the childhood obesity epidemic, new research suggests.

The studies involved young rats, not children, but researchers say the findings indicate that eating diet foods early in life may inadvertently lead to overeating and obesity later on.

Juvenile rats in the study fed sweet or salty low-calorie foods over time later overate when fed similar tasting calorie-dense foods, suggesting that the low-calorie foods disrupted the body’s ability to recognize calories and regulate energy intake.

This was especially true among young rats genetically predisposed to become obese.

Researcher W. David Pierce, PhD, acknowledges that extrapolating the findings to human children is a big leap.

But the University of Alberta sociology professor says the rat studies may provide important clues about how early taste conditioning leads to overeating and obesity.

“Our findings suggest that in young children, diet foods may be a poor substitute for healthy foods with sufficient calories to meet energy needs,” he tells WebMD.

Diet Foods and Obesity

The experiments involved 4-week-old juvenile and 8-week-old adolescent rats conditioned to associate particular tastes with caloric content.

This was done by feeding the animals either sweet or salty high-calorie or low-calorie gelatin cubes over the course of 16 days.

When the juvenile rats were later given energy-dense, pre-meal snacks with the same flavor as the low-calorie cubes, they ended up eating more regular food at meal time.

This was not the case with the older rats.

The study is published in the August issue of the journal Obesity.

The findings may help explain previous studies suggesting a link between diet soda consumption and obesity in children, Pierce and colleagues conclude.

“Data from our study indicate that the subversion of the relationship between taste and caloric content disrupts the normal physiological and behavioral energy balance of juvenile rats, resulting in overeating that is independent of genetic disposition for obesity,” they wrote.

The American Beverage Association has said on multiple occasions that soft drinks and diet soft drinks do not cause weight gain. “All of our industry’s beverages — including regular or diet soft drinks — can be part of a healthy way of life when consumed in moderation and as a part of a balanced lifestyle,” they note in news statements.
Diet Expert Weighs In

Childhood obesity expert Goutham Rao, MD, says the rat studies may or may not give insights into how hunger cues relate to energy intake in young children.

Rao, the author of the book, Child Obesity: A Parent’s Guide to a Fit, Trim and Happy Child, does agree that eating a healthy, well-balanced diet is better for young children than eating processed diet foods.

Rao directs the Center for Weight Management and Wellness at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.

“Parents often ask me if their children should drink diet sodas,” he tells WebMD. “I tell them that diet soda is better than regular soda, but my preference would be water or low-fat milk.”

He says soft drinks sweetened with sugar and other sugary beverages are among the biggest contributors to childhood obesity in the U.S.

“The solution to the obesity epidemic is simple to understand but hard to implement,” he says. “Avoid sweetened beverages, avoid fast food, limit media time, fit physical activity into the everyday routine, and eat together as a family. If every family did these things there would be very few obese children.”