A study released in 2016 shows Americans are saying no to soda pop!
The study, published in the journal Obesity in 2016 relied on a representative sample of 18,000 children 2 to 19 years old, and 27,652 adults aged 20 and older. They were asked about their beverage consumption over the past 24 hours: juice, milk, sugar and diet soda, coffee and tea, sports drinks, water and alcohol.
The study was published online November 14, 2017 in Obesity. It is the first paper to present the most recent national data on beverage consumption from the Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) which is the gold standard for understanding consumption trends and patterns at a national level.
An analysis of the report reveals that
- Per capita consumption of all drinks declined.
- Children took in 312.6 drink calories a day in 2014, compared with 473.8 a day in 2003.
- Adults took in 341.1 calories in 2014, compared with 425.0 in 2003.
- 60.7 percent of children and 50 percent of adults drank a sugary beverage (including soda) on any given day in 2014, down from 79.7 percent of children and 61.5 percent of adults in 2003.
- In every age group, water drinking increased. Sara N. Bleich, a professor of public health policy at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and lead author of the new study, said that this is probably because soda drinkers are switching to water.
- The consumption of 100 percent fruit juice also declined, most sharply among adolescents and those over age 40.
REFERENCE
“Trends in Beverage Consumption among Children and Adults, 2003-2014,” Sara N. Bleich, Kelsey A. Vercammen, Jonathan Wyatt Koma, and Zhonghe Li, Obesity, online November 14, 2017, doi: 10.1002/oby.22056
