Carbonated soft drinks are the single largest source of calories in the diet in America as soft drinks add large amounts of sugar to it. That is the reason they are most likely to contribute to obesity and the related health problems among the Children. controlling its consumption can avoid the risk of children being obese, and suffering the problems of high blood pressure and heart attack and stroke in later life, suggests in a study in the print and online issue of Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association.

It has already been determined that the amount of salt intake in diet determines the consumption of fluid intake in an adult, researchers at ‘St. George’s University of London’, England investigated whether the same happens in a child too.

Feng J. He, M.D., lead author of the study said that the soft drink which are rich in sugar are already proven to cause obesity among the children and young people and thus bring a substantial increase in their calorie intake. This further puts children at risk to obesity related diseases like hypertension and cardiac problems. So they tried to build up the link between the salt intake and the consumption of sugar-sweetened soft drink consumption.
The study was based on data collected under the ‘National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS)’ in Great Britain. This survey was conducted in 1997 and a sample of some odd 2,000 people between 4 and 18 years old was analyzed. The salt intake and the fluid consumption among 1600 boys and girls were recorded with digital measurement of food and drink.

Dr. He and colleagues found that children who take less salt in their diet drink fewer fluids. They anticipated that 1 gram of salt lessened from the diet can cut 100 grams of fluid from the diet on a daily basis. These fluids also included the sugar-sweetened soft drinks too.

The researchers calculated this considering other factors like age, gender, body weight and level of physical activity and estimated that dropping 1 gram of salt each day from diet could help in reducing intake of soft drinks by 27 grams per day. This puts direct influence on the calorie consumption among the children, thus playing an important role in combating the epidemic of obesity among the children.

It has already been established in one of the previous studies that a small decrease in the salt intake among children helps in lesser risk of their developing ailments rated to high blood pressure in their later life. In the recent study done, it added further by proving its contributory role in the consumption of sugar sweetened soft drinks.

Dr. He stressed upon the importance of controlling salt intake in diet among children as this can substantially lessen their chances of becoming vulnerable to diseases related to high blood pressure and obesity, leading to heart attack or cardiac stroke in later life. She also recommends proper consultation of the doctors in this regards to control this menace.
Dr. He suggest the parents to be aware of salt intake among their children by properly checking the labels of the packaged foods, selection of low-salt food products and lesser use of salt during cooking at home and its usage on the dining table. She says that the lessening salt would not affect the taste of the food.

Since this is a challenge which spreads from personal life to food industry, so she urges consumers to fight against it on different fronts to reduce the present score of occurrence of cardio vascular diseases among the population.

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