The FDA should support consumers' efforts to eat right by requiring health messages on the labels of soft drinks. The messages would alert consumers to the risks that frequent consumption of soft drinks poses, such as weight gain (and obesity-related health problems: diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, heart disease, and cancer), dental caries, and osteoporosis. In addition, people often drink soda in place of beverages that provide calcium and other nutrients. Americans consume more than three times as much non-diet soda pop per capita as they did 50 years ago. Once marketed in 6.5-ouncebottles , today carbonated soft drinks are marketed in 20-ounce and even 64-ounce (half-gallon) single-serving containers. Once consumed as occasional treats, soft drinks are now the single biggest source of calories in the average American's diet. In 1999-2002, carbonated soft drinks and non-carbonated (fruit) drinks provided about 13 percent of the average teenager's calories. Soft drinks provide large amounts of sugars to people's diets. Soda provides the average teenage boy with about 20 teaspoons of refined sugars a day and the average girl with about 13 teaspoons a day. That's more sugar than they should be getting from their entire diet. Soft drinks are a problem not only for what they contain, but for what they push out of the diet. In the late 1970s, boys consumed more than twice as much milk as soft drinks, and girls consumed 50 percent more milk than soft drinks. By 1999-2002, teens drank three times as much soft drinks (carbonated and noncarbonated) as milk. Heavy soft-drink consumption is associated with lower intakes of numerous vitamins and minerals. Obesity rates have doubled in adults and children and tripled in teens over the last 25 years. About one-third of youths and two-thirds of all U.S. adults are either overweight or obese. Several recent studies indicate that increasing soft-drink consumption is probably one (of numerous) contributors to weight gain in children and adults. Source: Center for Science in the Public Interest See their report Liquid Candy http://www.cspinet.org/new/pdf/liquid_candy_final_w_new_supplement.pdf J Circulation (American Heart Association) Posted 8/07 Study Links Diet Soft Drinks With Cardiac Risk J Circulation, 7/07 J Am Dietetic Assoc, June, 2007 New England Journal of Medicine, April 8, 2009 Remember we are NOT Doctors and have NO medical training. This site is like an Encylopedia - there are many pages, many links on many topics. Support our work with any size DONATION - see left side of any page - for how to donate. You can help raise awareness of CAM.