Soft Drink Consumption and Diet Quality Among Children and Teens

Soft Drink Consumption and Diet Quality Among Children and Teens

The Healthy Eating Index (HEI), developed by the USDA, measures the overall quality of an individual’s diet. We use data from the Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals, 1994-1996 (CSFII) to study the relationship between carbonated soft drink consumption and HEI for children (ages 6-11) and adolescents (ages 12-19).

We analyze HEI using a multivariate regression model that controls for beverage consumption, servings from the major food groups, demographics, income, and television viewing. Our results show a slight positive association between consumption of regular carbonated soft drinks (RCSD) and HEI. A 12-ounce increase in RCSD consumption increases the predicted HEI score by 0.4615 (p less than .001) for children and by 0.6745 (p less than .001) for teenagers.

There is no relationship between consumption of diet carbonated soft drinks (DCSD) and HEI among children, but there is a slight negative association between consumption of DCSD and HEI among teenagers. A 12-ounce increase in DCSD consumption decreases the predicted HEI score by 0.994 (p less than .05) for teens. Controlling for the other variables in the model, individuals who were African-American, male, older, a resident of the south, a resident of a rural area, or a member of a low-income family had lower predicted HEI scores. Children who watched more television also had lower HEI scores, but television viewing was not related with HEI among teenagers.

Our results show that consumption of regular carbonated soft drinks is consistent with an overall healthy diet as measured by HEI, but teenagers who are consuming low-calorie carbonated soft drinks have a slightly less healthy diet.

Research was supported by an unrestricted grant from the National Soft Drink Association.