Researchers at the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University analyzed 88 studies of nutrition and soft drinks.  They found that people who consumed more soft drinks consume more calories in general.  Results were published in the April 2007 issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

Source:
WebMD (March 12, 2007)

Portion Control and Type 2 Diabetes

The Archives of Internal Medicine (June 25, 2007) reports that portion-control plates and bowls helped people with type 2 diabetes not only lose weight but also reduced their need for blood sugar medications.  The study was conducted by the University of Calgary, Alberta and involved 130 obese type 2 diabetic adults.  Participants using portion-control dishes lost an average of 5.6 lbs, or 1.8% of their body weight.  What’s more, after six months, 26.2% of participants using portion control dishes were able to decrease their need for diabetes medications compared with only 10.8% of the control group.

Source:
Reuters Health (June 25, 2007)

Overweight workers cost more in injury claims than lean colleagues, suggests a Duke University study published in Archives of Internal Medicine. Workers with the highest BMIs had 13 times more lost workdays due to work-related injuries, and their medical claims for those injuries were seven times higher than their healthy-weight
co-workers.