An important study in the March issue of Pediatrics was released, showing that one soda a day could add one stone, or the equivalent of 14 pounds.
Talk about a definitive connection between drinking soda and weight gain!
Check out ths interesting BBC story, which quotes Dr. Cara Ebbeling, who led the study.
She said: "Sugary beverages have no nutritional value and seem to make a huge contribution to weight gain."
The good news is that the research illustrated that it’s relatively easy to have a significant impact on teenagers’ habits.
"People often get overwhelmed by nutrition advice and give up," she told the BBC.
"We opted to study one simple, potentially high-impact behaviour, and made it easy for adolescents to replace sugary drinks with noncaloric [no or low calorie] beverages."
She added: "It should be relatively simple to translate this intervention into a pragmatic public health approach.
"Schools could make noncaloric beverages available to students by purchasing large quantities at low costs."
Now, this is very good news indeed!