Sugar-Sweetened Beverages and Weight Gain in 2- to 5-Year-Old Children

Sugar-sweetened beverages cause weight gain for four and five year-old children and put two year olds at greater risk for future weight gain….

Researchers used data on children from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey—Birth cohort (ECLS-B) and longitudinal and cross-sectional analyses. The ECLS-B includes a nationally representative sample of 10,700 parents surveyed when their child was two, four, and five years old.

Trained assessors went to parent’s homes where the primary caretaker completed a computer-assisted interview from which beverage intake was calculated. Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) were defined as soda pop, sports drinks, or fruit drinks excluding those that were 100% fruit juice. Based on parent responses at the two-year interview, the child was either labeled as a SSB regular drinker if they drank SSB with meals or snacks, or as a SSB infrequent/nondrinker if they did not. At the four and five year interview the qualifications were changed; SSB regular drinkers were those having one or more daily servings of SSB and SSB infrequent/nondrinkers were children who drank less than that amount. Height and weight was taken to calculate Body Mass Index (BMI), and the child’s gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status (SES) was also noted.

At the four and five year old observations it was found that non-Hispanic black children had significantly higher SSB consumption than Hispanic kids, and that lower SES children consumed significantly more than other SES groups. Additionally, at each age SSB regular drinkers had a greater proportion of mothers who were overweight or obese. Four and five year olds who were SSB regular drinkers were much more likely to watch greater than two hours of television daily and drink less than one serving of milk daily than SSB infrequent/nondrinkers. In regards to weight gain, four and five year olds who regularly drank SSB had greater odds of becoming overweight and obese compared to their infrequent/nondrinking counterparts. The researchers also found that two year olds who consumed more SSB were more likely to be overweight or obese at ages four and five.

The authors reasoned that SSB correlates with greater weight gain since they induce less satiety than other foods, which results in increased calorie consumption. The children in the study who were SSB regular drinkers were found to have a 17-20% increase in calorie consumption. Ultimately, the researchers advised parents and caregivers to discourage child consumption of SSB and concluded that this may ease the growing rate of childhood obesity.

DeBoer M, Scharf R, Demmer R. Sugar sweetened beverages and weight gain in 2- to 5-year-old children. Pediatrics. 2013; 132(3)