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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 the incident of obesity in female youth.
We conducted a two months intervention on plain water intake. A total of 43 healthy female (age 22.0 ± 2.6 years) with a BMI of 23.0 to 29.9 kg/m2 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. Subjects were also instructed to not changing their activity level throughout the intervention period.
Body composition measurements and diet history questionnaires (DHQ) 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).
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.