The 100-Calorie Secret - Never Diet Again!

In a striking study, released on April 2, 2009 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition researchers from five university centers found that adults can lose more weight cutting out a few sugary drinks than reducing their food. Dr Benjamin Caballero, the senior author of the study from Johns Hopkins University, noted “both liquid and solid calories were associated with weight loss, but only liquid calorie intake was associated with significant weight reduction during the 6 and 18 month follow-up." This suggests that the participants were able to continue their weight loss beyond the study period simply because they did not return to the high sugar beverages.

How surgary drinks contribute so much to weight gain and how to stop them if you
are a soda "addict" follows:

This did not apply to solid foods or other drinks like milk. Of the seven types of beverages studied only sugar sweetened beverages: regular soft drinks, fruit drinks, fruit punch or high calorie beverages sweetened with sugar were associated directly with weight loss.

The Sugary Facts:
Sugary beverages contribute an average of 8% to 9% of total calories for children and adults. People in the USA consume about 16% of their daily calories from sugars that are added to all foods. About 47% of those sugars are from sodas and other sugar-sweetened beverages, such as juice drinks and iced tea. On average, people increased their calories from sodas and other sugary drinks by 83 calories a day from 1977 to 2001 as reported  in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

About 52 calories were from carbonated non-diet sodas. A 12-ounce soda has 150 calories and 40-50 grams of sugars in high-fructose corn syrup, equal to 10 teaspoons of sugar. Source: The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

How do sugary drinks contribute so much to weight gain?
Sugar-sweetened soft drinks contain 140-150 calories per 12-oz serving. If normal dietary intake decreased by an equivalent amount of calories per serving, then weight change would not be expected. However, it does not, almost universally the drinks become extra calories. Some studies have shown that if one were to take the same amount of sugar in the from of jelly beans, there was no added calories because food was reduced in proportion.

Satiety Factor:
Sugar in drinks does not invoke the same satiety as  solid food.  Numerous studies have linked more satiety to solid or semi solid foods than water alone. Dr Barbara Rolls at Penn State University has done research in this area. She found much more satiety in soups containing protein and vegetables than to an equal amount of broth.

Appetite stimulation
Rapidly changing blood sugar are the result of the sugar in these beverages quickly being absorbed through the stomach into the blood stream. A rapidly rising then falling blood sugar is a well-known appetite stimulant.

The consumption of milk
As sugar sweetened beverages increase, milk consumption has decreased. Energy and nutrients from
low fat milk far exceeds that from soft drinks.