eng Science and Education Publishing Journal of Food and Nutrition Research 2333-1240 2017-08-28 5 9 684 688 10.12691/jfnr-5-9-8 JFNR2017598 article Nur Islami Mohd Fahmi Teng nurislami@puncakalam.uitm.edu.my 1 Sa’ida Munira Johari 2 Nur Azma Amin 3 Hazwan Shah Ali 3 Siti Hajar Mukhtar 3 Norsham Juliana Nordin 3 Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Selangor, Malaysia Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Institute of Medical Science Technology, Universiti Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Malaysia Sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) intake is considered an important contributing factor to obesity in youth. Replacing SSB with calorie-free beverage has potentially reduced energy intake and obesity prevention; however the health outcomes remain unclear. We evaluated the effect of the substitution of plain water for SSBs with incident of obesity in female youth. We conducted a two months intervention on plain water intake. A total of 43 overweight female (age 22.0 ± 2.6 years) were randomly assigned to Intervention (n=23) and Control (n= 20) groups. The intervention regime consists of increasing intake of daily plain water consumption, and avoiding SSB. However, intake of 1 serving of fresh milk per day is allowed. Body composition measurements, diet history questionnaires (DHQ), SF-36 and goal-adjustment scale (GAS) questionnaires were ascertained at baseline and week 8. There was a significant increase (p<0.001) in plain water intake in the Intervention group as compared to the Control group. With respect to body composition, there was a significant intervention effect in body weight (p<0.05) and BMI (p<0.01). It was shown that both body weight and BMI improved in the Intervention group as compared to Control. Both waist circumference and body fat percentage revealed significant group effect (p<0.05). No significant intervention effect was found on both SF-36 and GAS items. Replacing SSB with plain water is effective in improving body composition among youth. There is a need to conduct a larger scale study with longer duration and measuring biochemical parameters for further research. http://pubs.sciepub.com/jfnr/5/9/8/jfnr-5-9-8.pdf obesity overweight plain water sugar sweetened beverages