Sip Smart

Introduction:

The amount of overweight or obese citizens of Missouri has been steadily increasing. One culprit behind the gain in weight may be sugary drinks. They can range from soda, sweetened teas, to fruit juices. A typical 12 ounce can of soda has about 150 calories. To put this into perspective, if a person were to drink one can of soda per day, they would gain about 1.2 pounds a month, or over 14 pounds a year. In Missouri, the percentage of citizens that are either overweight or obese is 65.8 (1). This rate exceeds the overweight or obese rate of the United States, which is at 63.8 percent. Someone who is overweight or obese has an increase risk of developing many problems including: heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, and diabetes (3). For these reasons, it is important to reduce the occurrence of overweight and obese individuals in the state of Missouri. One way to achieve this goal is to ban sugary drinks.

Risks of consuming sugary drinks:

The Nurses’ Health Study conducted a prospective cohort study which examined approximately 91,000 women, initially diabetes free, over 8 years. After the study, the researchers analyzed the data and found that the women who consumed one or more sugary drinks per day were twice as likely to develop type II diabetes as those who consumed less than one drink per month. Here is a short overview of how diabetes works:

Prolonged consumption of sugary drinks may lead to type II diabetes. Diets high in simple sugars, the same sugars present in sugary drinks, can cause desensitivity to insulin receptors. In turn, the body will not be able to absorb insulin as efficiently. This condition is known as type II diabetes. However, there are two main ways to prevent diabetes, exercise and nutrition. In the long term, exercise can increase your body's sensitivity to insulin (4). Exercise can also decrease the amount of body fat. This is important because adipose tissue, or fat cells, release a hormone called leptin. Leptin decreases your body's sensitivity to insulin, thus making you more likely to develop type II diabetes (9). 

In addition to diabetes, sugary drinks may also increase the risk of developing heart disease. According to the CDC, more than one in four Missourians die from heart disease every year (2). The Nurses’ Health Study also conducted research on heart disease and sugary drinks. They found that the women who drank more than two servings of sugary drinks a day had a 40 percent higher risk of developing heart disease than those who rarely drank them. Now, the researchers knew that it was likely that the women who consumed more than two sugary drinks a day probably did not have the best diets and did not exercise regularly. So, the researchers took these problems into consideration. They then found that even with regular exercise and a clean diet, the risk of developing heart disease only decreased slightly (3).

In a meta-analysis of 88 studies, drinking soda correlates with a decrease in milk consumption along with the vitamin D, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, calcium, protein and other micronutrients (3). Phosphorus, a micronutrient, can be found cola-type beverages, but there may be a risk in consuming too much (3). Phosphorus and calcium are used in the body to create calcium-phosphate, which is the main component of bone. However, the combination of too much phosphorus with too little calcium in the body can lead to a degeneration of bone mass (3).

Finally, since there are so many risks associated with soft drink consumption, people should strive to take these drinks out of their diet or at least consume them in moderation. However, sometimes this is not enough and the next step would be to ban soft drinks from vending machines in areas such as schools and workplaces to ensure that people are cutting down. The ban should start with only a few cities and eventually spread to more and more cities once support is gained and the statistics agree that obesity is dropping. But this is not an easy task because citizens must put together a petition so that the policy change can be put on a ballot for voting. To aid this process along, community leaders from each city should be gathered to help persuade voters to pass the change.

References

(1)   "BRFSS | Health & Senior Services." Home | Missouri Department of Health & Senior Services.  .

(2)   "CDC - Health Effects - Heart Disease - Smoking & Tobacco Use." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Web. 28 Nov. 2011. .

(3)   "Sugary Drinks or Diet Drinks: What's the Best Choice? - Healthy Drinks - The Nutrition Source - Harvard School of Public Health." Harvard School of Public Health - HSPH. .

(4)   Backx, K., McCann, A., Wasley, D., Dunseath, G., Luzio, S., & Owens, D. (2011). The effect of a supported exercise programme in patients with newly diagnosed Type 2 diabetes: A pilot study. Journal of Sports Sciences, 29(6), 579-586. doi:10.1080/02640414.2010.544666

(5)   Brown, E. W. (1998). Healthy Gums and Heart Disease. Medical Update, 22(2), 5. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

(6)   Burgos-Ramos, E., Chowen, J. A., Arilla-Ferreiro, E., Canelles, S., Argente, J., & Barrios, V. (2011). Chronic central leptin infusion modifies the response to acute central insulin injection by reducing the interaction of the insulin receptor with IRS2 and increasing its association with SOCS3. Journal of Neurochemistry, 117(1), 175-185. doi:10.1111/j.1471-4159.2011.07191.x

(7)   Daily Flossing Is Essential. (2003). Nutrition Health Review: The Consumer's Medical Journal, (86), 4. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

(8)   Larkin, M. (2002). Can flossing teeth foil heart disease?. Lancet, 360(9327), 147. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

(9)   Marino, J. S., Xu, Y., & Hill, J. W. (2011). Central insulin and leptin-mediated autonomic control of glucose homeostasis.Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism, 22(7), 275-285. doi:10.1016/j.tem.2011.03.001