Individual and Worksite Environmental Factors Associated with Habitual Beverage Consumption among Overweight and Obese Adults

Abstract

The number of overweight adults has risen to two-thirds of the population, thus increases in energy intake, particularly from beverages are of great concern. Sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) intake has increased by 222 calories in recent decades, which contributes a significant source of added sugars to the American diet. It has been reported that water consumers have a lower overall energy intake (~194 kcals) as compared to non-consumers of water therefore substituting water for SSBs may facilitate weight loss and weight management. Evidence also indicates that diet quality follows a socioeconomic gradient, and that the environment has a powerful influence on beverage consumption. Thus, modifying the food environment could be a promising strategy for promoting healthier beverage consumption behavior. A large portion of the US population spends their day at a worksite making the worksite a viable setting for implementing environmental approaches to promote effective behavior change. At this time, it is unclear if a reduction of SSB intake would be a viable dietary weight management intervention strategy. Therefore, our purpose was to determine if water, SSB intake, SSB energy, total beverage intake, and total beverage energy varies with individual and environmental factors among overweight and obese employees from 28 worksites involved in a randomized controlled weight management trial. These findings may contribute to the development of tailored weight management programs aimed to improve beverage consumption patterns.