Abstract
Sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) intake is considered an important contributing factor to obesity in youth. Replacing SSB with calorie-free beverage has potentially reduced energy intake and obesity prevention; however the health outcomes remain unclear. We evaluated the effect of the substitution of plain water for SSBs with incident of obesity in female youth. We conducted a two months intervention on plain water intake. A total of 43 overweight female (age 22.0 ± 2.6 years) were randomly assigned to Intervention (n=23) and Control (n= 20) groups. The intervention regime consists of increasing intake of daily plain water consumption, and avoiding SSB. However, intake of 1 serving of fresh milk per day is allowed. Body composition measurements, diet history questionnaires (DHQ), SF-36 and goal-adjustment scale (GAS) questionnaires were ascertained at baseline and week 8. There was a significant increase (p<0.001) in plain water intake in the Intervention group as compared to the Control group. With respect to body composition, there was a significant intervention effect in body weight (p<0.05) and BMI (p<0.01). It was shown that both body weight and BMI improved in the Intervention group as compared to Control. Both waist circumference and body fat percentage revealed significant group effect (p<0.05). No significant intervention effect was found on both SF-36 and GAS items. Replacing SSB with plain water is effective in improving body composition among youth. There is a need to conduct a larger scale study with longer duration and measuring biochemical parameters for further research.
Highlights
The increase in obesity prevalence is one of the world’s public health concerns
Fat percentage in Intervention group was significantly higher than Control, it was included as the covariate in the analysis of repeated measured ANOVA
It was shown that both body weight and body mass index (BMI) improved in the Intervention group as compared to Control group following the intervention
Summary
Among Malaysian adult population, the prevalence of obesity was 17.7% (defined using WHO 2000 criteria) which was higher than the world’s prevalence, 13.0% [1]. This prevalence had increased 0.6% than the previous report in 2011 [2]. Scientific evidence has reported that PW intake was inversely associated with intake of total sugar, suggestive of poor diet quality [12]. As part of a healthy diet, drinking plain water can aid weight management [13,14] and if replaced for SSB intake, there will be a possibility to avert the adverse consequences associated with SSB
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