SweetTeaArticle-TheScholarShipatECU-EastCarolina.docVIP

How Sweet It Is: Traditional Sweet Iced Tea and the Diabesity Epidemic. Natalie Taft MS, RDN, LDN, David N Collier PhD, MD, Robert Tanenberg MD, Kathryn M Kolasa PhD, RDN, LDN ABSTRACT In this paper we present four cases from our medical practice to increase awareness of the role of sweet tea in obesity and diabetes management. We start with a history of Southern style “sweet tea”, and discuss the importance of screening for beverage intake in the clinical setting. We note the associations between sugar sweetened beverage intake and weight that we often see in our clinics. Then we discuss resistance to changing a “sweet tea habit”. Finally, we sound an alert about the spread of sweet tea to other parts of the country. The cases we present are not atypical for clinical populations. INTRODUCTION This paper discusses the consumption of a specific sugar sweetened beverage (SSB) by adults and children known as sweet tea, iced tea, or often simply as “tea”. We encounter patients daily whose consumption of sweet tea contributes to their health risks. Studies have indicated a positive association between reported SSB consumption and weight gain and abdominal obesity (1-3). Others have demonstrated that reducing energy intake from SSBs results in weight loss (4-5). Furthermore a meta-analyses of prospective cohort studies demonstrates, that as the consumption of SSBs, including sweetened iced tea, has risen, this higher consumption of SSBs is associated with the development of metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes (3). Those who had the highest category of intake had 20% greater risk of developing metabolic syndrome and 26% greater risk of type 2 diabetes, than those in the lowest category of intake. SSBs and overall energy intake. SSBs are the largest source of added sugars in the diet of U.S. youths. Data from 2005-2006 NHANES survey showed for youth 2-18 years old, 11.1% of overall energy intake came from SSBs with 118 of the 173 kcal/day of SSBs coming f