This blog was written by Jenna Pearson. Meet our blogging fitness specialists at the NIFS website.
In 2010, the average American consumed over 44 gallons of carbonated soft drinks! While this number does include diet beverages, it does not take into account the number of non-carbonated, sugared soft drinks (such as lemonade, iced tea, juice, sports drinks, etc.), which tally up to about 17 gallons per person per year!
Looking at those numbers from a nutritional standpoint is eye-opening to say the least. Here are the facts, according to CalorieKing:
- A single, 20-ounce bottle of regular soda contains about 250 calories and 17 teaspoons of sugar (70.9 grams).
- An 8-ounce serving of apple juice contains about 120 calories and more than 6 teaspoons of sugar (26 grams).
- A 32-ounce sports drink contains 200 calories and nearly 14 teaspoons of sugar (56 grams).
- A 12-ounce glass of sweet iced tea contains 130 calories and more than 8 teaspoons of sugar (35 grams).
- A 12-ounce glass of lemonade contains 150 calories and almost 10 teaspoons of sugar (40 grams).
For those keeping track, these numbers show that the average non-diet soda contains about 12.5 calories and .85 teaspoons of sugar per ounce, while an average non-diet, non-carbonated soft drink contains about 9 calories and .6 teaspoons of sugar per ounce. This means that if the average American did not consume diet beverages in the figures above, he or she would have consumed roughly 70,400 calories and 4,787 teaspoons of sugar from carbonated beverages AND 19,584 calories and 1,306 teaspoons of sugar from non-carbonated beverages. That’s a total of 89,984 calories and 6,093 teaspoons of sugar!
Do you see yourself in these numbers? Are you trying to lose weight? If so, think about this: If you were to ditch your sugar and calorie-laden drinks for water—and make absolutely no other changes to your diet or physical activity level—you could lose up to 26 pounds in a year.
Yup, that’s right, 26 pounds.