Step away from the soda, says biologist: Fizzy drinks can cause permanent weight gain

Good news for the Bloomberg campaign against big sugary drinks. New study says frequent consumption could lead to lasting metabolic damage.

 By Meena Hart Duerson / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, July 31, 2012, 7:24 PM

 A British biologist has a message for soda lovers: step away from the fizz!

Dr. Hans-Peter Kubis, the director of the Health Exercise and Rehabilitation group at Bangor University in England, has found that regularly drinking soda can not only cause weight gain but can actually change the metabolism in the human body, potentially triggering a whole host of other medical problems.

“If you’re thirsty and think of reaching for a sugary soft drink - don’t - it can compromise your long-term health,” the University warned in a statement publicizing Kubis’s findings.

His study, published in the European Journal of Nutrition in June, looked at the effects of increased soda intake on a group of 11 men and women described as “lightly active, healthy, lean subjects with sporadic soft drink consumption.”

This group was given sugar-sweetened beverages over a course of four weeks while researchers kept track of their vitals.

The study found that even in that short time, the extra soda led their bodies to process calories differently, switching to “an inefficient metabolism.”

“Regularly drinking soft drinks changes the way our muscles use food as fuel, making them prefer to burn sugars over fats,” researchers found, noting the research indicated “these changes are lasting.
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NYPD report on Muslim shops includes stores owned by Jews, Catholics

Kings Row, a Brooklyn clothing store, was included
in a report about Muslim businesses. “I happen to be
a Sephardic Jew," said shop owner David Idy. " My
family is from Egypt, but I was actually raised in
Bensonhurst and consider myself an American.”

NYPD anti-terror detectives were compiling lists of businesses, stores and mosques linked to Muslim New Yorkers with Syrian, Albanian and Egyptian roots.

By Rocco Parascandola AND Corky Siemaszko / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Friday, March 9, 2012, 7:41 PM
Updated: Friday, March 9, 2012, 10:31 PM

NYPD anti-terror detectives compiled lists of businesses, stores and mosques linked to Muslim New Yorkers with Syrian, Albanian and Egyptian roots.

But they didn’t do a very thorough job.

The owners of most of the establishments listed in the “Syrian Locations of Concern Report” told The Daily News Friday they are neither Syrian nor Muslim.

“I think it’s pretty comical that my store would be in this report,” said David Idy, owner of Kings Row, a clothing store on Avenue U in Brooklyn. “I happen to be a Sephardic Jew. My family is from Egypt, but I was actually raised in Bensonhurst and consider myself an American.”

Cops also listed a Bronx barber shop called “Dino’s European Hair Style,” noting that its owner is Albanian and its close proximity to the North Bronx Muslim Center.

Shop owner Sammy Eirovic said, “I’m not Albanian, I’m Montenegran.”

“Honestly, I’m really surprised anybody would be spying on me,” he said. “We just cut hair.”

Among the supposedly Egyptian-owned businesses listed by the NYPD were defunct nightclubs like the Cleopatra on 5th Ave. in Brooklyn, which served liquor — something observant Muslims shun.

The reports were obtained by the Associated Press, whose ongoing probe of NYPD spying has sparked sharp criticism from Islamic and civil rights groups — and prompted strong rebuttals by Mayor Bloomberg and Commissioner Ray Kelly.
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