Obesity congress reopens debate over colas

Increasing consumption of junk food may be to blame for obesity, but not half as much as sugary colas, a top expert on obesity warned at the 10th International Congress on Obesity in Sydney in Australia.

According to University of North Carolina Interdisciplinary Obesity Center director Barry Popkin, the deeply rooted culture of guzzling sugary drinks like colas has led to the consumption of excess calories, which in turn is fuelling obesity. On an average, Americans take in about 451 extra calories from colas now, as against 234 calories three to four decades back. “We are drinking ourselves into obesity,” Popkin said. The debate is an old one, and cola companies like Coca-Cola and Pepsi are already under fire for their role in the worldwide health problem.

In a smooth PR maneuver, Coca-Cola hosted a breakfast at the congress, before a scheduled conference began. The cola giant sent a scientist Dr John Foreyt from the Coca-Cola and the Beverage Institute to defend itself against allegations. “I think the answer to really looking at healthy lifestyle is balance and variety and moderation, and anytime you pick out a single culprit you're going to be in trouble because obesity and health risks are all associated with multiple factors,” Dr Foreyt said. He said that obesity was increasing not because people were consuming more cola but because they were not offsetting the extra calories gained from junk food and beverages by exercising. “Calories are calories are calories, so you want to look at balance, and if people are getting their calories from one source, too many calories, people can get in trouble, but that caloric source can be anything. So you really have to look at your overall diet. I think that's still the bottom line,” he said, while sharing his experiences with the Behavioral Medicine Research Center in Houston, Texas.

Told that his presence at an anti-obesity conference was much like a tobacco industry lobbyist's participation in a lung cancer conference, Dr Foreyt said, “Absolutely not. No, No. People…(are)…very reasonable, they have good judgment and commonsense, which means balance and variety and moderation in all things, including diet and physical activity.”

But other experts did not seem to think so. University of Sydney's Ian Caterson said, “Soft drinks are probably a special case because they're high in energy and they're also liquid, and it seems that getting energy as a liquid, you don't get the same satiety (as with foods).” So, a person consuming excess beverage does not reach the feeling of fullness as fast as someone eating extra food does.

Slamming cola industry-sponsored research papers, Australasian Society scientist Tim Gill said, “Companies have been able to bring together a panel of experts whose views suit their particular promotional needs, and so that's always a degree of concern. I think soft drinks is one of those areas where there's pretty much a consensus that soft drinks have been a major contributor to the increased calorie intake, particularly amongst teenagers, and that there's a huge potential to address this problem by reducing soft drink intake.” He warned against believing research results that were funded by cola giants.

On his part, Popkin has a simpler solution – increasing taxes on sugary beverages to make them dearer. “The only way we got rid of cigarettes ... was adding to the cost considerably. If you doubled the price of a regular Coke, people would drink Diet Coke or water, or milk or juice or something,” he suggested.

The International Congress on Obesity, where 2500 experts from the world over have gathered to exchanges notes on the global problem, runs till Friday.

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