By Rebekah Addy, Ivanhoe Health Correspondent

ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Soft drinks strike again! Now, a new research review links them to increased body weight.

Researchers from Yale University in New Haven, Conn., reviewed 88 studies and concluded, "Recommendations to reduce population soft drink consumption are strongly supported by the available science."

The American Beverage Association responded on their website: "It is not feasible to blame any one food product or beverage as being a sole contributor to obesity. No science supports such a claim."

Co-author and director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, Kelly Brownell, Ph.D., says that argument is meant to distract attention from their products. "Nobody is making the argument that there is a single cause for obesity," Dr. Brownell told Ivanhoe. "There is no such claim, so of course there is no science to support it. On the list of contributors that science does support, soft drinks are right up there."

In one of the studies, researchers looked at 91,249 women for eight years and found those who drank one or more soft drinks a day were twice as likely to develop type 2 diabetes as those who consumed less than one soft drink per month. The study review researchers say, "This result alone warrants serious concern about soft drink intake, particularly in light of the unprecedented rise in type 2 diabetes among children."

So what do you do if you really just want a non-diet soda? Dr. Brownell recommends limiting it to periodic consumption.

SOURCE: Ivanhoe interview with Kelly Brownell, Ph.D., American Journal of Public Health, 2007;97:667-675