There are several reasons for our increasing weight

New Delhi: Expanding waistline is the biggest problem for most of us. There are several reasons for our increasing weight – sedentary lifestyle, excessive eating of junk food, lack of physical activity, irregular sleep patterns, etc. Today, Tim Crowe – Nutrition Academic at Deakin University and freelance writer at Thinking Nutrition, narrows down on the number one cause of unhealthy weight gain. Tim says, ‘the number one cause for weight gain is none other than sweetened beverages.’ The reason for this statement is years of evidence showing the linkage between sugar-sweetened drinks and weight gain. According to a comprehensive study, these drinks are the biggest culprits for weight gain. Consuming drinks that is loaded with sugar can have an adverse effect on your weight. The biggest culprit is – the kilojoules content in its liquid form. Tim explains this unhealthy weight gain, ‘since it is in liquid form, it leaves you feeling less satiated as compared to other solid foods. Thus, you are likely to consume more of such drinks, to fulfil your hunger which causes weight gain.’

According to various solid observational evidences sugar-sweetened drinks are one of the major causes of unhealthy weight gain. Thus, cutting down the consumption of these drinks can help you to control your weight. Tim states an amazing observational study, which further helps to show strong evidence between the link of sugar-sweetened drinks and weight gain. According to a meta-analysis, this involved over 200,000 adults and children, comprising 22 observational studies, and 10 randomized-controlled trials. The conclusion that arrived from this analysis is that, for every single serve (340 mL) of sugar-sweetened beverage drank per day, it added 0.06 units to the body mass index of children, and between 0.12 to 0.22 kilograms to the waistlines of adults over 1 year.

This figure seem insignificant, but you when multiply the years and the drinks you have the number and the weight starts to add up. Various studies which were conducted with children and adults, states that weight actually went down when sugar-

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