Americans drinking less soda, reducing caloric intake from drinks

Soda taxes have recently been implemented by several U.S. cities as a way to generate revenue while curbing sugary beverage consumption, a driver of the nation’s obesity epidemic. But it turns out Americans were already reaching for a bottle of ‘pop’ less often.

According to survey results published in Obesity, 60.7 percent of children and 50 percent of adults drank a sugary beverage on any given day in 2014, down from 79.7 percent of children and 61.5 percent of adults in 2003. Over that same timeframe, the per capita daily consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) declined from 224.6 to 132.5 calories for children and from 190.4 to 137.6 calories for adults.

Across all age groups, the per capita calorie amounts from all beverages declined over the study period, while water consumption increased. In young children, the relative amount of milk intake increased when compared to sugary drinks.

“This overall decline in both beverage and SSB consumption is consistent with previous literature, suggesting a recent ‘turning point’ toward lower energy intake in the U.S. diet, potentially attributable to widespread discussion and media coverage of the role of certain foods (e.g., SSBs) in promoting obesity, changes to food allowances within the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, improvements to school feeding programs, and product reformulations by food manufacturers and retailers,” wrote lead author Sara N. Bleich, PhD, a professor of public health policy at Harvard University, and colleagues.

“From an energy balance perspective, it is encouraging that children and adults are consuming fewer calories from beverages, as liquids have lower satiety and are less well compensated than calories from solid foods. The overall declines in beverage calories may help to explain the leveling of obesity in the general population and reductions among young children ages 2 to 5 years.”

Bleich and co-authors studied dietary data collected from 18,600 children aged 2 to 19 years and 27,652 adults aged 20 and older as part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Respondents reported all food and beverages consumed in the prior 24-hour period, and caloric content and nutritional content was calculated based on the quantity of the food or beverage reported and the corresponding nutrient contents provided by the National Center for Health Statistics.

SSBs included soda, fruit drinks and punches, sports drinks, low-calorie drinks and other sweetened beverages. The researchers also noted the consumption of 100 percent juice, diet beverages, milk, unsweetened coffee or tea and water.

While the overall trends were encouraging, Bleich et al. noted the highest levels of SSB consumption were present in black, Mexican American and non-Mexican Hispanic participants, who remain at higher risk for obesity and diabetes.

Public health policies, such as the soda taxes, could help reduce the gap between those populations and others, the authors said.

“Another way to encourage greater consumption of healthier beverages (such as water) could be through procurement policies, which place restrictions on the types of beverages that can be made available for purchase in places such as schools, worksites, or government institutions,” they wrote. “These healthy beverage procurement policies may have the added benefit of catalyzing the beverage industry to reformulate beverages to meet a heathier profile (such as flavored water rather than soda).”