BOSTON (UPI) -- Overweight and obese U.S. teens gain less weight when they consume fewer sugary drinks, researchers say.

Cara Ebbeling and Dr. David Ludwig of Boston Children‘s Hospital and colleagues said their study involved 224 overweight or obese ninth- and 10th-graders who regularly drank 1.7 sugary beverages a day.

The year-long study intervention was designed to reduce consumption of these beverages by delivering non-caloric beverages to participants’ homes for participants and their families. Members of the control group were given gift cards to buy whatever beverages they wanted.

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found the experimental group of adolescents -- who virtually eliminated consumption of sugary beverages -- gained 4 fewer pounds and had essentially no body mass index increase compared with the control group. The control group continued to drink sugar-sweetened beverages regularly, but at reduced levels, possibly due to local public health efforts to reduce sugary drink consumption at school, Ebbeling said.

Hispanic adolescents showed the greatest benefit -- gaining 14 fewer pounds than the control group.

“No other single food product has been shown to change body weight by this amount over a year simply through its reduction,” Ludwig said in a statement.

“Obesity is a serious and complex public health issue facing our nation and the rest of the world and we all must work together to solve it. We know, and science supports, that obesity is not uniquely caused by any single food or beverage,” said a statement by the American Beverage Association.

“Thus, studies and opinion pieces that focus solely on sugar-sweetened beverages, or any other single source of calories, do nothing meaningful to help address this serious issue. The fact remains: Sugar-sweetened beverages are not driving obesity. Americans consume about 617 more calories today than they did in 1970, but more than 90 percent of those incremental calories come from sources other than beverages.”

<관련 한글 기사>

비만인 당신, 음료부터 체크하세요

한 미국 연구팀의 조사에 따르면 비만인 미국 청소년들에게 덜 단 음료수를 소비하게 했을 때 체중이 덜 늘게 되었다고 한다.

보스톤 어린이 병원의 카라 에블링과 데이빗 루트비히 박사에 따르면 조사대상인 비만인 224명의 중3과 고1 학생들은 평균적으로 하루에 1.7개의 단 음료를 섭취하는 것으로 나타났다.

1년간 실험 학생들에게 칼로리가 없는 음료를 강제로 소비하게 했고, 통제 그룹은 마시고 싶은 음료를 마시게 했다.

그 결과 단 음료의 소비를 줄였던 학생 그룹은 4파운드 가량 덜 살이 쪘고 체질량지수도 증가하지 않았다.

미국 음료 협회는 반박하는 성명서를 내고 "당이 첨가된 음료수를 줄인다고 해서 비만을 해결할 수는 없고 단 음료수가 비만의 주요 원인도 아니다"라고 말했다.

(코리아헤럴드)