• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Soda consumption down slightly, still #1 source of calories in U.S. diet

Status
Not open for further replies.

Guevara

Member
0503-web-SODA.png


The average American drank slightly under two sodas per day.
Health advocates are cautiously optimistic about the decline. “It is really important because sugary soft drinks are the No. 1 source of calories in our diets,” said Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. “We get more calories from sodas and sugary drinks than any other individual food — cake, cookies, pizza, anything.”
What began as a slow decline accelerated in the middle of the last decade and now threatens some of the best-known brands in the business. Coke and Pepsi are relying more than ever on the “flat” drinks and bottled waters in their portfolios and on increases in the price of sodas, forcing die-hard drinkers to pay more to feed their sugar habits.
Not surprisingly, the country’s largest soda companies insist their carbonated soft drinks business will still grow, if not at as fast a clip as it has historically. “This is not a zero-sum game,” said Sandy Douglas, president of Coca-Cola North America.

But even they concede that unless the industry stumbles upon what it calls the holy grail, an all-natural sweetener with no calories, the future is going to be more firmly anchored in noncarbonated drinks. “The health and wellness trend is huge, permanent and important,” Mr. Douglas said. “My crystal ball says that a smart beverage company will sell a variety of products, and some of them will have bubbles and some of them won’t.”

Coca-Cola and its competitors have spent the last two decades decreasing their reliance on carbonated soft drinks anyway.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/business/pepsi-and-competitors-scramble-as-soda-sales-drop.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=business
 
I've pretty much cut out sodas entirely since I moved into my new apartment in February. I still have the 2 liter bottle of Dr. Pepper that my dad bought when he helped me move in. I just keep it there as a reminder. I've had a few sodas before if I go out to eat with some friends and I don't feel like getting a beer or something but I have only had 4 or 5.

I could afford to cut back on alcohol, though...
 

Avinexus

Member
The average American drank slightly under two sodas per day.
And here I thought I drank too much soda. I'm actually below average according to this.

EDIT: Actually, nevermind. The graph says it counts each "soda" as an 8-ounce serving, so basically one 20-ounce soda bottle counts as 2.x "sodas" on this graph. That's kinda misleading...you'd think they would use the average size of a soda can/bottle.
 

demon

I don't mean to alarm you but you have dogs on your face
Two pops per day? Madness!

That stuff is nothing but liquid candy.
 

Guevara

Member
A soda is usually 12 ounces at a minimum with either 16 or 20 being fairly common. This chart seems to indicate 16 oz is the average now which would either be 1 or 1 1/3rd soda, wouldn't it?

Yeah the article is calling 8 oz of soda a serving (which is what it says on a 2 liter bottle, for example). A can of soda is 12 oz.
 

andycapps

Member
There's got to be some people out there slamming 4-6 of them to even out for the people like me that don't drink any at all. Then again, I'm in the minority, I'm sure.
 

Divvy

Canadians burned my passport
I wonder if the average went down after that one lady that drank 10 litres a day croaked.
 
I actually prefer to drink milk (skim or 2%) when it's available, honestly. But you don't get refills of that for free, and it can be kind of expensive at many restaurants... a few I go to don't even offer it. (Although one of those restaurants also has sodas that taste very off, so water or bust there.)

Juice, too, but the calorie content in that is comparable to sodas, isn't it?

I don't really like water, but I've been warming up to it over the past couple of years, so I guess there's always that. Has to be ice cold, though.
 

RubxQub

φίλω ἐξεχέγλουτον καί ψευδολόγον οὖκ εἰπόν
I drink maybe 3-4 cans of soda per week. It's just liquid sugar. Juice is so much better.

Juice really isn't that much better... Just as many carbs with significantly lost nutrients from the whole fruit in the first place and no fiber to balance the sugar.

Stick to water or tea or coffee or diet drinks.
 

Wiktor

Member
unless the industry stumbles upon what it calls the holy grail, an all-natural sweetener with no calories, the future is going to be more firmly anchored in noncarbonated drinks

Ermm..isn't it exactly what stevia is?
 

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
wikipedia said:
Compared with consumption of high glucose beverages, drinking high fructose beverages with meals results in lower circulating insulin and leptin levels, and higher ghrelin levels after the meal.[61] Since leptin and insulin decrease appetite and ghrelin increases appetite, some researchers suspect that eating large amounts of fructose increases the likelihood of weight gain.[62]

Soda, #1 source of calories in the U.S. diet.
 

Wthermans

Banned
I need to cut out soda. I love my Mt. Dew and Dr. Pepper though. Been drinking more water though. Usually about 12oz of soda to 16oz of water per day now.
 
Juice is nowhere near as bad as soda, you guys are nuts.

Real juice is nutritious and good for you, and has natural sugars.

Soda contains caffeine, carbonic acid, refined sugars, and worst of all, phosphoric acid which actually deteriorates your bone density and destroy vitamins and minerals. The phosphoric acid destroys Vitamin D and can make your bones brittle and lead to osteoperosis.

Does juice do all that?
 

RubxQub

φίλω ἐξεχέγλουτον καί ψευδολόγον οὖκ εἰπόν
Juice is nowhere near as bad as soda, you guys are nuts.

Real juice is nutritious and good for you, and has natural sugars.

Soda contains caffeine, carbonic acid, refined sugars, and worst of all, phosphoric acid which actually deteriorates your bone density and destroy vitamins and minerals. The phosphoric acid destroys Vitamin D and can make your bones brittle and lead to osteoperosis.

Does juice do all that?

Juice = high sugar with greatly reduced nutrients from the whole fruit + next to none of the fiber from the whole fruit to slow the sugar down.

From a pure fat-gain/fat-loss perspective, juice can be just as bad as soda without question.

Juice also has been reported to have higher amounts of arsenic in it over drinking water and the industry says that juice and water shouldn't be held to the same standards so it's cool.

So is juice as bad as soda? It can be. I think what makes it worse is when people try and pretend that it's a healthy thing to consume when in reality it's hurting them just as bad.
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
theres a difference?

Root beer, cream soda, lemon-lime soda versus actual cola

Did you make a conscious decision to stop, or did it just sort of happen?

Dentist said to stop, and even though I've basically never listened to a dentist before in my life, that one just stuck with me. Maybe he hypnotised me?

And then a few years later someone pointed out that other sodas do basically the same thing as cola, so I just cut out those as well.

Beforehand I had soda with every meal, so probably around 16oz or more a day
 
Juice = high sugar with greatly reduced nutrients from the whole fruit + next to none of the fiber from the whole fruit to slow the sugar down.

From a pure fat-gain/fat-loss perspective, juice can be just as bad as soda without question.

Juice also has been reported to have higher amounts of arsenic in it over drinking water and the industry says that juice and water shouldn't be held to the same standards so it's cool.

So is juice as bad as soda? It can be. I think what makes it worse is when people try and pretend that it's a healthy thing to consume when in reality it's hurting them just as bad.

From a weight perspective, yes you can definitely gain weight by drinking juice all the time. I wasn't talking about juice from the store anyway, I juice my fruits. You barely lose any of the nutrients, if any, besides the fiber in skins of some of the fruit.

But it will not have the deteriorating effects on your body that sodas do.
 

xxracerxx

Don't worry, I'll vouch for them.
Juice is nowhere near as bad as soda, you guys are nuts.

Real juice is nutritious and good for you, and has natural sugars.

Soda contains caffeine, carbonic acid, refined sugars, and worst of all, phosphoric acid which actually deteriorates your bone density and destroy vitamins and minerals. The phosphoric acid destroys Vitamin D and can make your bones brittle and lead to osteoperosis.

Does juice do all that?

ir0MO.jpg
 
I haven't had a soda in 5 years. Haven't had cola specifically in almost 9.

Outside of Diet and occasional havings at restaurants this is true for me too.

I mean it makes you MORE thirsty. That's like eating food that makes you more hungry. I don't get it.


He said juice not shitty orange drink.

Juice = high sugar with greatly reduced nutrients from the whole fruit + next to none of the fiber from the whole fruit to slow the sugar down.

From a pure fat-gain/fat-loss perspective, juice can be just as bad as soda without question.

Juice also has been reported to have higher amounts of arsenic in it over drinking water and the industry says that juice and water shouldn't be held to the same standards so it's cool.

So is juice as bad as soda? It can be. I think what makes it worse is when people try and pretend that it's a healthy thing to consume when in reality it's hurting them just as bad.

This seems to be something very divided by nutritionists.
 

Mike M

Nick N
I'll maybe drink a couple cans over the course of a day (mostly at home, at work I stick to water and occasionally tea), but I'm at least sticking to diet sodas.

I tend to drink quite a bit, if I drank drinks with actual caloric value I'd probably be dead by now...
 

Tunavi

Banned
Juice = high sugar with greatly reduced nutrients from the whole fruit + next to none of the fiber from the whole fruit to slow the sugar down.

From a pure fat-gain/fat-loss perspective, juice can be just as bad as soda without question.

Juice also has been reported to have higher amounts of arsenic in it over drinking water and the industry says that juice and water shouldn't be held to the same standards so it's cool.

So is juice as bad as soda? It can be. I think what makes it worse is when people try and pretend that it's a healthy thing to consume when in reality it's hurting them just as bad.
what about this stuff?
0007146420060_500X500.jpg

good or bad?
 

shintoki

sparkle this bitch
Had soda three times this year, went to the movies three times this year. Coincidence? :O

Once it gets out of your system, you no longer have the taste for it.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom