Soft Drinks Case Study

Introduction For every meal, snacks, parties, gatherings with friends or co-workers, or even just sitting back watching television, there is always that incessant presence of a can or a glass of one’s favorite carbonated drink. For most people, especially for adolescence, these sugary carbonated drinks liven up the quality of the food or even the company, or provide that quenching ‘kick’ for the thirsty, something that water sometimes cannot do. Unfortunately a liter of soda can contain 700 calories (US Department of Agriculture 2012), and frequent intake could pose serious health problems such as obesity or diabetes. Studies show that a daily intake of a 12-oz soda containing 250 calories can contribute to 15 lbs weight increase in a year (Apovian 2004).
Is there a possible correlation with weight gain and sugar-sweetened carbonated drink?
2. Is one month enough to detect any relationship at all with caloric and weight increase?
3. Would a complete elimination of James’ soft drinks habit for one month decrease his weight significantly?
4. Would it be possible to attribute any weight changes to decrease in soft drinks intake?
5. If a psychological assessment is done to James regarding his cravings during the first and the last week of the intervention, what would researchers find?
6. Is James already at the at-risk level for degenerative diseases such as diabetes due to his high intake of soft drinks?
7. What can be a better alternative to soft drinks?
Research Hypothesis
There are also hypothesis that must be laid out regarding the experimentation. These hypotheses help confirm significant correlations between weight gain and carbonated soft drinks, and also accounts for other results that may not be anticipated.
1. There would be a decrease in weight due to the reduction of soda consumption.
2. The result would only yield a fractional amount of changes in weight.
3. Changes in weight would also be caused by other factors other than reduction of soft drinks