New Yorkers are gaining weight and being diagnosed with diabetes at a higher rate than the rest of the nation, a new study by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene reveals.

Published in the April issue of Preventing Chronic Disease, a medical journal of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the study found that “the citywide weight gain totaled more than 10 million pounds in just two years,” between 2002 and 2004.

Obesity increased by 20 percent among whites and by 14 percent among Hispanics in New York City compared with 7 percent nationally. Foreign-born New Yorkers experienced the sharpest increase in obesity at 33% since 2002, meaning that 22.4% of that population is obese.

The number of diabetes diagnosis also jumped 17 percent in New York, while the rate in the rest of the country stayed the same.

“Obesity, and with it diabetes, are the only widespread major health conditions that are getting worse in New York City. To tackle this problem and help prevent the devastating effects of these conditions, New Yorkers must take in fewer calories, and to help them do that we must change our environment. Consumers must have calorie information readily available when they are ordering food at chain restaurants, and we must continue to increase access to fruits and vegetables in the neighborhoods where healthy foods are not readily accessible,” Health Commissioner, Dr. Thomas Frieden said, according to the New York Times.

Another study on obesity that is being published in The Journal of Urban Health blames the consumption of soda and sugary drinks for the excessive weight gain and diabetes.

“When people count calories, they often forget to include drinks, which can account for a large number of extra calories. We think of the calories in soda as ‘empty’ ones, because they provide no nutritional benefits. In the middle of this epidemic of obesity, people should choose water and zero-calorie drinks, not sugar-sweetened soda and other sugar-sweetened drinks,” Cathy Nonas, the Health Department’s director of Physical activity and nutrition programs, said in a statement.

The study found that 27 percent of the New Yorkers drink nearly two sodas a day, which means almost 300 nutrition-free calories.

Both studies were based on data from the Community Health Survey, a telephone survey of approximately 10,000 New York City adults and from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a similar nationwide survey.