As we already knew, the amount of salt we drink per day is what regulates the sensation of thirst we have. Thus, the salt we eat directly influences the amount of liquids we drink during the day. But what had not yet been demonstrated is whether there is a proportional relationship between ingested salt and the consumption of bubble drinks in children.
As published in the latest issue of the "Hypertension" magazine, a team of researchers from the University of London have concluded that The amount of salt a child consumes directly influences the number of soft drinks he drinks per day. To affirm this, they have analyzed the customs of 1,688 children between four and 18 years of age, during a period of one week, in which they wrote down all the food products and beverages that they ate and drank, as well as the amount of exercise that They performed. Thus they showed that the amount of salt the child ingests depends proportionally on his age, and that it increases as the child gets older, as does the amount of liquid he drinks. In this way, four-year-old children take an average of 4.6 grams per day of salt and 18-year-olds average 6.8 grams.
But the most important thing they saw is that when it came to quenching thirst, children preferred to drink soda instead of water. Thus it was seen that 56% of the drinks they drank were soft drinks, regardless of whether they were sugary or light, and that the water represented only 11% of the liquid they drank.
These researchers state that "If salt intake were reduced by half in all children aged four to 18 years, there would be a reduction of 81 grams per day in their consumption of sugary drinks per individual, which is equivalent to a decrease in 2.3 sodas a week and this reduction would mean not consuming 244 kilocalories in that period "
This conclusion is very important in the fight against childhood obesity. We have to educate food companies to reduce the amounts of salt in their products and of course, also to parents to limit the use of salt and the consumption of these types of drinks in the smallest. So we will be taking another step against obesity and cardiovascular diseases.
Via | The world In Babies and more | High sugar drinks are associated with overweight in preschool children
