Soft drinks and 'desire to drink' in preschoolers

Three hundred and forty six same-sex twin children (mean age 11.2 years; s.d. 0.54; 56% female; 53% dizygotic) were weighed, measured and reported their liking for milk, water, fruit juice, fruit squash and sweetened soft drinks. Mothers reported on their child's drink consumption and completed the CEBQ.Scores on the CEBQ DD subscale were not significantly related to child BMI-SDS in this sample. Children scoring higher on DD had higher preferences for sugar-sweetened soft drinks (p = 0.016), fruit squash (p = 0.042) and milk (p = 0.020) than children scoring lower on the scale. DD was also positively related to more frequent consumption of sugar-sweetened soft drinks (p = 0.017) and low calorie soft drinks (p = 0.003). No relationship was observed between DD scores and liking for or intake of water or 100% fruit juice.These findings suggest that the construct desire to drink in children is related to a liking for consuming sweetened drinks, and does not appear to simply denote greater thirst or hunger. This may have important implications for the ongoing development of dietary patterns and weight status in the longer term through an increased preference for sweet things in the mouth and a failure to compensate for calories provided by drinks.Soft drink consumption has increased dramatically over recent years, with a five fold increase in the UK between 1974 and 1999 [1] and similar trends in the US. Soft drinks are often implicated as contributors to the rising rates of overweight and obesity, and although the relationship has not been unequivocally established, a recent systematic review concluded that there is a link between soft drink consumption and weight status in both adults and children [2]. A stronger, more consistent link was found between soft drink intake and increased energy consumption in a recent meta-analysis [3]. Both higher energy intake and higher weight may be due to poor compensation for the energy consumed in soft drinks [4]. As soft drinks ha