Loving one another fulfills Jewish law because love “does no evil,” explains Saint Paul in this Sunday’s selection from the Letter to the Romans. But not all “loves” are benign. A new study has shed light on America’s increasing love affair with sugary beverages, which in part explains the growing problem of obesity, especially among the young.

Over half the people in the U.S. drink a sugary beverage a day, said the new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Males ages 12 to 19 guzzle the most sugary drinks, about 273 calories' worth per day on average. And 70 percent of boys ages 2 to 19 consume sugary drinks on any given day.

Sugary beverages have been implicated as contributors to obesity, especially among the young, and that in part explains why the world is becoming a heavier place. Obesity rates worldwide have doubled in the last three decades, according to three new studies being published in the British medical journal The Lancet.

People in the Pacific Islands, such as American Samoa, are the heaviest, one of the studies found. In developed countries, Americans are the most obese and Japanese are the slimmest.

In 1980 about 5 percent of men and 8 percent of women worldwide were obese. By 2008 the rates were nearly 10 percent for men and 14 percent for women. An additional 1.5 billion adults worldwide were overweight.

On the heels of the CDC study on sweetened drinks, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) announced it's taking part in the “Life’s Sweeter With Fewer Sugar Drinks” campaign, whose mission is to get people to drink fewer sugary beverages.

The campaign's goal is to broaden the battle against sugary drinks from health experts to civic organizations, youth groups, civil rights groups, and others, said CSPI Executive Director Michael Jacobson.

"The enormous health and economic benefits that would result from drinking less 'liquid candy' will be supported by a broad cross section of America. Not since the anti-tobacco campaigns has there been a product so worthy of a national health campaign," Jacobson said.

Sources: Articles by Jeannine Stein for the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press