This post reminds me of the mouse experiment showing mice preferred the reward of refined sugar over cocaine, even when the mice were already addicted to cocaine. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1931610/

Perhaps their should very basic study on general health/weight of people who regularly consume refined sugars and those who abstain from refined sugar (with neither group engaging in structured exercise. Or have these scientists answer a more basic question about obesity...all things being equal, if you took a person (whether they exercise or not) would that person be more likely to be obese if they consumed a 200 calorie soda every day or replaced the soda with 200 calories of almonds. I think people would be greatly surprised to find out a calorie is not simply a calorie as is often suggested and that sugar has a lot more impact on obesity than fats.