We drink soda like it's water, but it's not! A 20-ounce soda has 16 teaspoons of sugar. The average American consumes 45 gallons of sugary drinks a year. That's 39 pounds of sugar -- about as much as a 5-year-old child weighs!
What's worse, liquid calories don't satisfy hunger the way solid food calories do. As a result, the calories we drink tend to add to the calories we eat, rather than replace them.
These liquid calories have made soda and other sugary beverages a huge contributor to obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and tooth decay.
The average American
now drinks
45 gallons of sugary drinks annually...
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We drink twice as much soda and other sugary drinks as we did 30 years ago. The average American now drinks 45 gallons of sugary drinks each year -- taking in an extra 39 pounds of sugar. During the 1990s, teens began drinking more soda than milk. Today, 13% of the calories teens consume come from sugary drinks. |
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Sugary drinks are the biggest source of added sugar in the U.S. diet. Each 20-ounce bottle of soda contains 16 teaspoons of sugar ...
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| Sugary drinks are the biggest source of added sugar in the U.S. diet. Each 20-ounce bottle of soda contains 16 teaspoons of sugar -- that's 22 packets of sugar and 240 empty calories in one bottle! | |||
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Liquid Candy by Center for Science in the Public Interest |
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Sugar and Health | ||
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Scientific evidence shows a strong link between consuming sugary drinks and obesity...
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Sugary drinks are a huge contributor to the obesity epidemic. Scientific evidence shows a strong link between consuming sugary drinks and obesity. |
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| People who drink even one or two sugary drinks per day have a 27% higher risk for developing type 2 diabetes, and a 20% higher risk of developing metabolic syndrome. |
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| Drinking sugary beverages increases a person's risk for both diabetes and heart disease. People who drink even one or two sugary drinks per day have 27% higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes, and a 20% higher risk of developing metabolic syndrome. Over the last decade, an estimated 130,000 cases of diabetes developed because of sugary drink consumption. | |
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Dietary Sugars Intake and Cardiovascular Health, American Heart Association, 2009. A 2009 review paper that provides an important summary of sugar's effect on health and cardiovascular disease. |
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Health Consequences of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages |
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| Every additional daily serving of soda increases a child's risk for obesity by 60%... |
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Every additional daily serving of soda increases a child's risk for obesity by 60%. Consuming sugary drinks in childhood also greatly increases the risk that a person will be overweight or obesity as an adult.
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The Negative Impact of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages on Children's Health, Healthy Eating Research, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation November 2009 A research review synthesizing the negative health impacts of sugar-sweetened beverage consumption on children. |
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Sugar-Sweetened Beverages and Young Children |
