. >> reporter: ashley mason published a study this week that suggests a simple solution for some. >> get the junk food out of your house. >> reporter: a year ago ucsf campuses banned the sale of sugar beverages. the ban resulted in a 45% drop in consumption beverages. >> the other key thing that we also found why you drink sugary beverages. >> reporter: 10 minutes of counseling helped more than removing the source of temptation. >> why do you want to drink less sugar. they figured out what made them want to reduce their drinking rather than someone saying this is bad for you. sometimes it was wanting to get diabetes like their grandparents. >> reporter: if you're looking to improve your health, sweeten drinks should be the first to go. >> you could eat some nice piece of cake that has the same amount of sugar as your drink and the drink is worse for you. >> why? >> the drink has sugar that can go right to your blood and right to your brain. and it causes that rthat rthat r response just like drugs. >> well that's good information. i know you'll be glad we haven't been in the building

. >> reporter: ashley mason published a study this week that suggests a simple solution for some. ur house. junk food out ago causes banned e sale of sugar beverages. thban resulted in a 45% drop in beverages. >> the other key thing that we also found why you drink sugary gerave s. counseling helped more than removing the source you want t want to reduce their drinking rather than someone saying this is bad for you. sometimes it was not wanting to get diabetes like their grandparents. >> reporter: if you're looking to improve your health, sweeten drinks should fibe go. >> you could eat some nice piece of cake that has the same amount of sugar as your drink is wowhe rsy? fo >> the drink has sugar your bl right to your brain. and it causes that rewthat rewtw respse just like drugs. >> well that's good information. i know you'll be glad we haven't been in the building but i have not been having sugary drinks for weeks now. >> you have to keep it in perspective. a couple of pounds versus getting covid and all the people who have died. th >>at to keep it in perspective. >> all right. >

. >> reporter: psychologist ashley mason this week that suggests a solution for some. >> get the junkut of your house. trip ucsf campus is banned the sale of sugar sweetened beverages. >> regular sodas, sports drinks, and sugary copies and tee. the ban resulted in a 45% of drop in consumption of sugary beverages and a two centimeter reduction in belly fat and a sample of ucsf employees. the other key thing we found s matt you insu >> reporter: for people who crave the drinks, the study found 10 minutes of counseling helped more than removing the surce of temptation. >> why do you want to drink less sugar? they figured out what made them want to reduce it rather than someone saying this is bad for you. it was wanting to not get diabetes like their grandparents . health psychologist melissa apples says if you're looking to improve your health, sweetened drinks should be the first to go. >> you could eat some nice piece of cake with the same amount of sugar as d drink wors the drink has sugar that can go right to your blood and write to your brain and it causes that reward response just

joining us now to talk more about this research and what can be done to address this trend is dr ashley masonfrom ucsf, dr. mason great to have you on appreciate your time? obviously a lot of us. we have been stuck at home more than usual. a lot of us doing the comfort eating as we try to try to deal with the stress happening all around us. is this about what we're eating? is this more about how often were eating one of the biggest factors you think driving this. it's probably a number of factors. one major factor we know that will influence what we eat is what's available to eat. if we have a lot of food in our house at a given moment, that isn't food that we particularly wanna be eating all the time. and yet we're stuck in our houses were more likely to eat more of it. there's a number of factors that could be causing a lot of that food to be in our house. we might be. shopping less frequently to reduce trips to the store and therefore buying more things at once and having more cookies available, and that's going to be problematic. but overeating can happen in a number of forms and in respo