Even the pop machines are looking a bit chubby.

Student weight gain is rampant and what we drink plays a mjor role.

The main problem isn’t drinking beer. It isn’t even pop.

Look instead to fruit drinks.

Susan Whiting, a nutrition and dietetics expert at the University of Saskatchewan, says that while Americans drink plenty of pop, Canadians prefer uncarbonated drinks that seem like, but aren’t really, juice.

“We’ve been using national Canadian data to understand what Canadians are doing,” she said. “Here, it is fruit drink correlated, not beer or soft drinks, with weight gain.”

Her findings are drawn from data from the Canadian Community Health Survey, which includes information on consumption habits and health for 14,000 Canadians.

The link between sweet drinks, especially fruit drinks, and weight gain, was striking. Fruit drinks masquerade as juices but their sugar-added nature makes them much less healthy. These beverages include sweetened orange juices like Minute Maid along with more-obviously sugary brands like Fruitopia. However, more information is needed to identify more serious health risks.

The next CCHS survey will be released in 2015. Until then, Whiting’s group plans to correlate sweetened drink consumption with blood lipids and high blood pressure, both serious health risk factors. This data will come from the Canadian Health Measures Survey.

The fruit drink data comes on the heels of a recent Auburn University study in which Sareen Gropper’s research team studied changes in body weight, shape and body mass index over the standard four-year degree. Of the 131 students included, 70 per cent gained weight during their time at university. The overall gain was closer to 12 than the fabled 15 pounds of freshman year.

Aside from serious changes in lifestyle — a first year in residence is a world away from living at home — key dietary changes could be part of the cause.

If sweetened drinks play a part in college-age weight gain, no matter how small, then why haven’t we heard much about it?

For one thing, even researchers were unaware of the significance of beverages’ risk until recently.

“It’s a food group that 10 years ago we didn’t think was important. Then the Centre for Science and Public Interest labeled sweet drinks as liquid candy,” Whiting said.

“As soon as they did that, I began to understand… you’re really eating 10 teaspoons of sugar with one drink. I’m not going to give my child a bowl of candy that size, but with a Big Gulp, it’s everyday.”

Whiting believes the key is awareness. With beverage vending machines sprinkled around campus and fruit drinks loaded with sugar that seem healthy are readily available, students need to be made aware of the risks associated with sweetened drinks.

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Photo: Raisa Pezderic/The Sheaf