July 21, 2015 – Sugary Drinks

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Anchor lead:  Just how dangerous are sugary drinks? Elizabeth Tracey reports

Sugary drinks, including sodas and many fruit drinks, are receiving lots of attention because they contribute many calories to one’s diet but don’t provide much nutrition, adding to the obesity epidemic.  Now a new study implicates these drinks in death.  Mike Klag, dean of the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins, explains.

Klag: This was an article in the most recent issue of Circulation where they looked at the prevalence of drinking sugary drinks around the world and the risk of obesity and obesity related deaths, and what they found is that they estimate that 184,000 deaths each are due to the consumption of sugary drinks. In the US 25,000 deaths a year.  The safest thing and the best thing to drink is water.  :25

Klag says worldwide, obtaining safe water to drink is sometimes an issue, but is not one domestically.  He advocates for much higher taxation on sugary drinks to make them a less attractive choice.  At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.