Association of beverage consumption with obesity in Mexican American children

Childhood obesity is epidemic in the USA and there are significant racial/ethnic disparities in obesity rates, with Latino children disproportionately affected(1). The most recent National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) found that 39% of Mexican American children aged 6–11 years were overweight (BMI ≥ 85th percentile) and 22% were obese (BMI ≥ 95th percentile)(1). Childhood obesity significantly increases the risk of being obese in adulthood(2) and is also associated with numerous morbidities in childhood(3). Consequently, it is crucial to understand the aetiology of childhood obesity in Mexican American children to improve the efficacy of prevention measures. Of the dietary habits which may contribute to child obesity, beverage consumption is of particular interest. However, there are unanswered questions with respect to the effects of different beverages on obesity risk. Energy from sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) now comprises nearly 10% of total energy intake for children in the USA, and the greatest increases in SSB consumption have been in minority youth(4). Several studies have found an association between SSB consumption and obesity in children(5–8). However, other studies have found no association(9–11), and recent review articles and meta-analyses differ in their conclusions on the strength of the evidence linking SSB consumption to obesity in children(12–15). With respect to beverages other than SSB, several observational and one experimental study found that the consumption of milk and other dairy products may be protective against obesity in children(16–20); although other studies have found that dairy consumption has a neutral effect on childhood obesity(21). Finally, while some studies have found that 100% fruit juice consumption is associated with obesity(18,22–24), other studies have not confirmed this finding(25,26). Of the previous studies that have analysed the association between beverage consumption and obesity in Latino children, all but one were limited to children aged 6 years or younger and most examined a limited number of beverage categories(5,6,8,27,28). We sought to broadly characterize the beverage consumption habits in a sample of Mexican American children aged 8–10 years and to determine whether beverage consumption was associated with obesity in this population.