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SAN FRANSISCO -- This holiday season, are you pouring on the pounds? A new public health campaign on the Internet has the graphic proof.
The campaign, called Drinking Yourself Fat, shows a soda can pouring out globs of disgusting fat instead of a sugary beverage. The message: Drinking one can of soda a day can make you 10 pounds fatter in a year.
"They don't even know they're doing it," says Dr. Robert Lustig, of the University of California-San Fransisco.
Lustig says for starters, a sugary soda does not satisfy hunger. On the contrary, it stimulates the brain.
"It stimulates the brain, and you eat more," he explains.
In fact, studies show if you drink 9 ounces of sugary soda, you'll eat roughly 200 more calories a day than if you did not drink that beverage at all. Not only that, Lustig warns your liver just cannot handle all that sugar.
"We overwhelm the system," he says.
So, those sugar carbs turn into fat. That fat can end up not only around your belly -- increasing the risk of heart disease and diabetes -- that fat may also end up in the liver itself, in some cases damaging the organ beyond repair.
"We've got kids doing four cans, five cans, eight cans; we've already done liver transplants on 15-year-old 400-pounders who just consume soda," Lustig says.
The American Beverage Association calls the new campaign irresponsible, saying sugary sodas are fat-free and that the real culprit is too many calories from all kinds of foods and beverages.
The creators of Drinking Yourself Fat say the problem is added sugar, not sugar you find naturally in fruits and veggies. The American Heart Association says most women should consume no more than 25 grams -- six teaspoons -- of sugar a day. Most men, meanwhile, should only take in 37 grams, or nine teaspoons a day.
The average American consumes about 22 teaspoons of added sugars a day.
E-mail: drkim@ksl.com
