Oh Cherry Coke, sweet nectar of the gods. How you have ruined my life for a period of years. During high school I, like any other kid, enjoyed soda, or pop, or whatever you want to call it. When I reached college I ballooned in weight and I place the blame primarily on soda. Sure, the dining hall food could have been a factor, since it did only come in two flavors: fried or with cheese, but the main reason was because of the copious amounts of carbonated beverages I consumed.
Let me break down the numbers. I went through an average of a 12-pack of soda that I bought every week, in addition to 12-24oz per meal that I had every day. Lets just say I drank an average of 3 12oz cans a day. That’s 252 fluid ounces per week, which equals almost 2 gallons. For the year, that’s
a little over 100 gallons of soda per year. I make myself sick just thinking about it. The aftermath was this: At the end of the year I ended up with 7 cavities in my teeth and became heavier than I ever was in my life. After the pain of getting my cavities filled, I realized that soda was killing me in more ways that one.
Americans and Soda: The Growing Facts
That was my experience with soda. Now let’s delve into the problem on a national level. American consumption of soda has doubled since 1971. In 2004, Americans bought $66 billion worth of soda. Here’s another staggering number: soft drinks are the single most consumed food in the American diet, accounting for about 7% of all calories consumed.
What are the reasons Americans are drinking so much more soda? For one, the size of average container sized rose from a 6.5 oz bottle in the 1950′s, to the 24oz bottle of today. That’s not counting the 64oz cup, also known as a half-gallon, available at 7-11′s and fast food places that super-size their portions.
