Sugary Drinks
The Facts Add Up
In California, the cost of obesity is measured not only in skyrocketing health care costs and lost productivity,
1,2,3
but also in the rise of related chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
Extra calories from
added sugar—like those in sugary drinks—can and do contribute significantly to overweight and obesity. In
4
fact, sugary drinks are the largest contributor of added sugar in the diet.
In their work to help Californians prevent obesity and chronic disease and to minimize added sugar and
added calories in diets—public health professionals across the state are joining forces to ask Californians to
Rethink Your Drink!
EFFECTS OF SUGARY DRINKS
Many sugary drinks are sources of empty calories, meaning
they offer added sugar and few other nutrients besides
calories. It’s the added sugar that experts believe may be
2,3
driving people’s risk for type 2 diabetes, and heart disease.
•
Adults who drink one or more sugar-sweetened drinks a
day are 27% more likely to be overweight than adults who
5
do not drink sugar-sweetened drinks.
•
For each additional sugary drink a child consumes a day,
8
his or her risk of obesity jumps by 60%.
•
Women who drink more than two sugary drinks a day are
40% more likely to have a heart attack or die from heart
9
disease.
•
Drinking sugary drinks nearly doubles the risk of dental
10
cavities in children.
Drinking Too Much Sugar
•
In California, 62% of teens,
41% of children and 24% of
adults drink one or more sugary
5
drinks per day.
•
Each year, the average California
adolescent consumes the
equivalent of 39 pounds of sugar
5,6
from sugary drinks.
•
Sugary drink intake by adults
has more than doubled in the last
30 years, translating to an extra
77 calories from sugary drinks
6
per day.
•
A 20 ounce bottle of soda
contains 17 teaspoons of sugar.
•
For every 20 ounce soda
consumed, an individual adds
240 calories to their diet. A
person weighing 154 pounds
would have to walk for
51 minutes at a speed of 3.5 mph
7
to burn off those extra calories.
THE SUGARY DRINK ENVIRONMENT
•
Access: With over 60 brands offering more than 650 products in a wide variety of outlets, sugary
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beverages are readily available for public consumption.
•
Marketing: Beverage companies spend more than $608 million every year to sell their products. Ads
for sugary drinks are on TV, at the movies, on billboards, at sporting events, in video games, and even
12
on the Internet.
•
Price: With canned and fountain drinks available for under a dollar, in-store and weekly specials,
coupons, wholesale warehouses, convenience stores, and discount grocers, shoppers don’t have to try
hard to find affordable sugary drinks.
•
Portion Size: The typical bottle of soda has tripled in size—from 6.5 ounces in the 1950s, to 34 or even
13
64 ounces today.
For more information visit www.RethinkYourDrinkCa.com or call the
California Department of Public Health’s Network for a Healthy California at (916) 449-5400.
1.
The Economic Costs of Overweight, Obesity, and Physical Inactivity Among California Adults-2006 (July, 2009) California Center for Public Health Advocacy.
2.
Woodward-Lopez G, Kao J, Ritchie L. To what extent have sweetened beverages contributed to the obesity epidemic? Public Health Nutrition. Sep 23, 2010:1-11.
3.
Johnson R, et al. Dietary Sugars Intake and Cardiovascular Health: A Scientific Statement from the American Heart Association. Journal of the American Heart
Association 2009, vol. 120, pp. 1011-1020.
4.
Guthrie JF, Morton JF. Food sources of added sweeteners in the diets of Americans. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 2000;100(1):43-51.
5.
Babey SH, Jones M, Yu H, Goldstein H. Bubbling Over: Soda Consumption and Its Link to Obesity in California. UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and California
Center for Public Health Advocacy, 2009.
6.
Popkin BM. Patterns of beverage use across the lifecycle. Physiology & Behavior. 2010;100:4–9.
7.
United States Department of Health and Human Services, U. S. Department of Agriculture. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2005, Table 4. Calories/Hour Expended in
Common Physical Activities. http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2005/document/html/chapter3.htm Accessed May 15, 2012.
8.
Ludwig DS, Peterson KE, Gortmaker SL. Relation between consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks and childhood obesity: a prospective, observational analysis.
Lancet 2001;357:505-508.
9.
Fung TT, Malik V, Rexrode KM, Manson JE, Willett WC, Hu FB. Sweetened beverage consumption and risk of coronary heart disease in women. American Journal of
Clinical Nutrition. 2009; 89:1037-1042.
10.
Sohn W, Burt BA, Sowers MR. Carbonated Soft Drinks and Dental Caries in the Primary Dentition. J Dent Res. 2006; 85(3): 262–266.)
11.
Harris JL, et al. Sugary Drink FACTS: Evaluating Sugary Drink Nutrition and Marketing to Youth. Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, October, 2011.
12.
Sugar Water Gets a Facelift: What Marketing Does for Soda. Berkeley Media Studies Group, 2009.
13.
Lisa R Young, Marion Nestle. Expanding portion sizes in the US marketplace: Implications for nutrition counseling. Journal of the American Dietetic Association. 1
February 2003 (volume 103 issue 2 Pages 231-234 DOI: 10.1053/jada.2003.50027)
This material was produced by the California Department of Public Health’s Network for a Healthy California with funding from
USDA SNAP, known in California as CalFresh (formerly Food Stamps). These institutions are equal opportunity providers and
employers. CalFresh provides assistance to low-income households and can help buy nutritious foods for better health.
For CalFresh information, call 1-877-847-3663. For important nutrition information, visit www.cachampionsforchange.net.