Banning of Sugary Drinks

       

          The University of California, San Francisco removed all sugary drinks from its campus. The purpose of the removal of sugary drinks was to see if there would be any effects when large amounts of sugar was to be removed.

       The University based this removal on the studies based on the previous studies of obesity, diabetes, and other health risks. Many staff have also participated in this by only buying 100% juices or water.  A tax was placed on sugary drinks to raise money on those who drink sugary drinks. One employee is already seeing the positivity of this banning.

 

 "Eventually, she stopped bringing soda to work and started drinking water, tea and zero-calorie flavored drinks instead. She has lost five pounds and hopes to lose at least 20 more. She said she sometimes struggles to avoid sugary drinks when she is at home or going out with her friends, but feels good that the university no longer sells them at her place of work."

 

      The reasoning of picking this article was because our campus has different options to drink but most of the options are sugary. From having a family with diabetics, it would be nice to see more sugarless options.

 

 

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/08/well/eat/putting-sugary-soda-out-of-reach.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fhealth&action=click&contentCollection=health&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=30&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0

 





 

Sugary Drinks May Magnify the Genetic Risk of Obesity

Researchers are suggesting that those who have inherited obesity genes, may be more likely to become obese if they drink a large amount of sugary beverages. To come to this conclusion, scientists analyzed the genetic profiles of 33,000 men and women. According to Lu Qi, assistant professor in the nutrition department at the Harvard School of Public Health, "The risk of becoming obese as a result of carrying a high dose of obesity genes was more than twice as great in the group with the highest intake of sugary beverages as it was for the lowest intake group." Basically, high consumption of sugary drinks greatly increased the genetic risk of becoming obese. (It is worth noting that health, exercise level, and eating habits were taken into consideration.) The results of this study will be published in the New England Journal of Medicine on September 21, 2012.



I would think that sugary drinks put everyone at a higher risk for obesity, whether they carry obesity genes or not. I would like to know how they can determine when obesity is caused by genetics along with sugary drinks rather than just the genetics alone. Either way, it is nice to know that those who are genetically predisposed to obesity can lessen their chance of becoming obese by living a healthy lifestyle.