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The health impacts of sugary drinks
Excess sugar consumption contributes to obesity, tooth decay, early menses in girls, and chronic diseases including diabetes and heart disease. To add to the damage, doctors are now attributing too much dietary sugar to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, which can lead to cirrhosis of the liver.
It's enough to make you sit up and listen to the warnings about too much soda, sugary drinks, and sugar-laden processed foods.
What is a sugary drink? It's any beverage, more or less, with added sugar or other sweeteners, including high-fructose corn syrup. The long list of beverages includes soda, lemonade, fruit punch, powdered fruit drinks, sports drinks, energy drinks, sweetened coffee and tea drinks, and many flavored milk products.
People are becoming aware of the concerns of too many sugary drinks, and steps are being taken to reduce their consumption. Some K-12 school districts across the nation are limiting sales of soda, and the City of Davis will soon require that restaurants offer milk or water as a first beverage choice with kids' meals.
UC Cooperative Extension, the county-based outreach arm of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, is partnering with health agencies and conducting public service programs for youth and families about sugary drinks. UC ANR Cooperative Extension in San Joaquin County recently presented a "Rethink Your Drink" parent workshop in conjunction with the county's Office of Education, and Solano County Cooperative Extension is working with the California Department of public health to engage youth in "Rethink Your Drink" programs.
Lucia Kaiser, UC ANR Cooperative Extension nutrition specialist, co-authored a policy brief about California's rural immigrants who have poor-quality tap water, or perceive tap water to be bad. Kaiser, who is also a nutrition faculty member at UC Davis, noted that studies have found a link between water quality and consumption of sugary drinks, which is a concern in low-income communities that don't have resources for clean water.
As of this month (July 2015), UC San Francisco is no longer selling sugary beverages on its campus, and UCSF has launched a Healthy Beverage Initiative. UC Berkeley held a Sugar Challenge this year, and UC Davis is conducting a Sugar Beverage Study on women.
Scientists at UC San Francisco, UC Davis, UC ANR's Nutrition Policy Institute, and other universities are studying the health effects of sugar and implementing health outreach programs. And UC's Global Food Initiative is building on the momentum of excessive sugary-drink consumption.
A healthy alternative to sugary drinks? Water, of course. Many universities and public places are replacing traditional drinking fountains with water stations so that students and others can fill their own bottles and have water “on the go.” And UC President Janet Napolitano is working with the Nutrition Policy Institute on a bold and sensible request to place water on the USDA's MyPlate nutrition guidelines.
The next time you're thirsty, drink wisely to your good health.
Additional information:
- Sugary drinks are hiding under a 'health halo'; UC ANR Food Blog, Aug. 6, 2014
- Nutrition Policy Institute, UC ANR
- UCSF Launches Sugar Science Initiative, a national initiative
- Learn the Facts about Sugar: How Sugar Impacts your Health, UCTV Video, May 2015
- The Hidden Costs of Sugar; UCSF news release, Nov. 2014
- Why Sugar? Why Now?, blog article by Laura Schmidt, UCSF
Sugary drinks are hiding under a 'health halo'
Researchers investigated the growing and often confusing list of supplements added to the drinks. In most cases, they found, the beverages provide little or no health benefits, and might be dangerous.
"Despite the positive connotation surrounding energy and sports drinks, these products are essentially sodas without the carbonation," said Patricia Crawford, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology at UC Berkeley.
The study looked at 21 popular drinks touted by manufacturers as "health and performance enhancing." In addition to sugar, caffeine, non-caloric sweeteners, sodium, vitamins and minerals, some drinks included the supplements guarana, ginseng, taurine, gingko biloba and ginger extract. Of the five herbal supplements, only ginger extract is classified as "likely safe" for children, Crawford said.
Because they contain caffeine, marketers promote the beverages as improving energy, concentration, endurance and performance. The study, however, documented harmful effects, such as increasing stress, nervousness, anxiety, headaches, insomnia, tremors, hallucinations and seizures.
"(Drink manufacturers') health marketing claims are the 21st Century equivalent of selling snake oil," said Harold Goldstein of the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, which commissioned the study.
The full report is at http://www.publichealthadvocacy.org/healthhalo.html.
Water that grows on trees
Coconut water, which has long been a popular drink in the tropics, is now being offered by trendy bottlers and touted as a source of nutrition, wellness, beauty and hydration.
The juice inside immature coconuts is sometimes billed as "nature's sports drink" and it gets credit for improving circulation, slowing aging, fighting viruses, boosting immunity, and reducing the risk of cancer, heart disease and stroke, according to a recent Los Angeles Times article.
However, Liz Applegate, the director of sports nutrition at UC Davis, shared a more moderate view with Times' reporter Elena Conis.
"There's nothing magical about coconut water," Applegate was quoted. There's no harm in it either.
Coconut water is 95 percent water and contains sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, phosphate, and small amounts of many essential amino acids. One cup has 6 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein and 46 calories.
Even though it is said to have a slightly sour flavor, it has become popular among fitness junkies who don't want to consume sports drinks with artificial colors or preservatives, Applegate told the reporter.
However, coconut water contains up to 15 times as much potassium as the average sports drink. Because the body loses more sodium than potassium during a workout, all that extra potassium isn't important.
The bottom line: Coconut water is fine for casual athletes who like the taste, but there are cheaper ways to rehydrate and restore electrolytes.
UC Davis nutrition professor Liz Applegate.
Children tend to get too much caffeine
Many parents are unaware their children are consuming too much caffeine, University of Nebraska Medical Center researchers found, and it is not good for their health, according to a post on the "contributed news" website All Voices.
The medical center surveyed the parents of more than 200 children 5 to 12 years old during routine clinical visits at an urban pediatric clinic. The researchers found that 75 percent of the children consumed caffeine on a daily basis, and the more caffeine the children consumed, the less they slept.
Children as young as 5 years old were consuming the equivalent of a can of soda a day. Children between the ages of 8 and 12 years consumed an average of 109 mg of caffeine a day, the equivalent of almost three 12-ounce cans of soda.
The All Voices post referred readers to a UC Davis nutrition and health info sheet titled "Some Facts About Energy Drinks," written by project scientist Karrie Heneman and Cooperative Extension nutrition specialist Sheri Zidenburg-Cherr.
The fact sheet said the caffeine content of a single serving of energy drink (8 to 12 oz.) can range from 72 to 150 mg, however, many bottles contain 2 to 3 servings, raising the caffeine content to as high as 294 mg per bottle. In comparison, the caffeine content in an 8-ounce serving of brewed coffee, tea and cola ranges between 134-240 mg, 48-175 mg and 22-46 mg respectively.
Other stimulants such as guarana and ginseng are often added to energy beverages and can enhance the effects of caffeine. Guarana, in particular, contains caffeine (1 g of guarana is nearly equal to 40 mg caffeine) and may substantially increase the total caffeine in an energy drink.
The more caffeine children consume, the less they sleep.
