Reduction in Consumption of Sweetened Beverages on Weight, Body Composition and Blood Pressure in Young Adults

The number of overweight and obese individuals has recently increased considerably. The World Health Organization estimates that there are 1.4 billion overweight and obese people in the world (1); in Mexico alone 70% of the adult population suffers from overweight and obesity, and 34.4% of school age children are above their normal weight (2) At the same time, hypertension affects more than a third of adults throughout the world and contributes to 9.4 million deaths a year from heart disease (3). In Mexico there are 22.4 million adults with hypertension, only 5.7 of whom are controlled (4). Obesity and hypertension are associated with life style both in the world and in Mexico, where changes in eating habits with increased fat in the diet, overconsumption of soft drinks and refined sugars and decrease in physical activity have led to numerous diseases (4). Mexico is the Latin American country with the highest consumption of carbonated beverages (5), averaging 384 soft drinks/person/year (6). The diminished sensation of satiety and the high ingestion of simple sugars (7, 8) facilitate the formation of triglycerides stored in fatty tissue and overweight and obesity (9, 10). Recent studies have examined the relationship between beverages and weight, albeit with controversial results. The majority of the studies have focused on increased consumption of sweetened drinks and their effect on weight over short periods of time (11,13,14). Meanwhile, consumption of low calorie beverages has increased, although there is no consensus about the utility of substituting sugar with artificial sweeteners to achieve better weight control (13). As much as obesity is a world-wide health issue, it is important to establish whether beverages with artificial sweeteners can aid in regulating weight. Since soft drinks contain sodium, it is also important to determine whether elevated sodium ingestion from them could increase blood pressure. Recent studies have demonstrated an association between sugar sweetened beverages and blood pressure, but the majority have been observational (14) and have not analyzed all types of sweetened beverages (15, 16).Because of these issues, the objective of the present study was to characterize the effect of reducing the consumption of beverages with sugar and artificial sweeteners on weight and blood pressure on nursing students. The working hypothesis was that nursing students from the National Institute of Medical Science and Nutrition in Mexico City (INCMNSZ) who substituted their intake of sugar or artificially sweetened soft drinks with plain water would have greater weight loss, lower fat and lower blood pressure than students who did not diminish their intake of soft drinks.