According to the new research, almost all (93 percent) of the 30 studies in children and adults unveiled a positive connection between SSB consumption and overweight/obesity, while only one prospective cohort study in children showed no association.

If you are drinking a lot of sugar-sweetened drinks (SSBs), stop doing so. It may make you obese or overweight, a research has confirmed. A new review of the latest data on SSBs — that adds 30 new studies published between 2013 and 2015 — concludes that SSB consumption is associated with overweight and obesity.

“The evidence base linking SSBs with obesity and overweight in children and adults has grown substantially in the past three years,” stated co-author Nathalie Farpour-Lambert from University Hospitals of Geneva in Switzerland.

“We were able to include 30 new studies not sponsored by the industry in this review, an average of 10 per year. This compares with a previous review that included 32 studies across the period 1990-2012.”

The review is published in the journal Obesity Facts.

Of these 30 studies involves,  20 were in children — 17 prospective and 3 randomised controlled trials (RCTs) — and 10 were in adults — 9 prospective and 1 RCT.

Almost all (93 percent) of the 30 studies in children and adults revealed a positive association between SSB consumption and overweight/obesity, while only one prospective cohort study in children showed no association.

The one randomised controlled trial in adults demonstrated no effect of the intervention (replacing SSBs with water and education counseling versus education counseling only). While those adults receiving the intervention lost more weight, however, the result was just outside statistical significance.

“By combining the already published evidence with this new research, we conclude something that in many ways should already be obvious: public health policies should aim to reduce the consumption of SSBs and encourage healthy alternatives such as water,” the researcher noted.

A total of 244,651 study participants were included in this new systematic review. Regarding the geographical area of the studies included, 33 percent were done in Europe, 23 percent in the US, 17 percent in Middle or South America, 10 percent in Australia, 7 percent in South Africa and the remaining 10 percent in Iran, Thailand, and Japan.