Beverages
Total 22% of U.S. Calories--But Who's Counting?
According to Tuft's University Health and Nutrition Letter,
March 2007, Volume 25, Number 1; American's drink almost a quarter
of our daily calories. And when we consume sweetened, high calorie
beverages, we don't compensate by cutting back on the calories
from solid food.
Those two new finding add up to a double dose of alarm about the
role of "liquid calories" in the American diet.
The "What American Drinks" report, commissioned by
the Milk Processor Education Program, used data from more than
10,000 American's, ages four and up, collected by the government's
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between
1999-2000 and 2001-2002. The report found that calories from
beverages make up 22% of the total energy intake in the average
U.S. diet. Half of the added sugar that Americans consume comes
from beverages, according to this analysis.
But many people don't "count" liquid calories-just
those from food they eat, warns dietitian Carolyn O'Neil, RD, a
spokesperson for the report. "People just may not be aware of how
these calories are sneaking into their diet....and not
understanding what an impact it has on body weight."
What America Drinks found that in a typical day the
average American consumes:
Soft drinks were found to be the source of 36% of
all added sugars and 6.4% of total calories in the American diet.
Nearly half of all Americans drink at least one sugary soft drink
on any given day, according to this report.
But When People Consume
sugared beverages, do they balance those extra liquid calories by
reducing portion sizes on their plates? That's the question Penn
State researchers, led by nutritional sciences professor Barbara
J. Rolls, PhD, and doctoral candidate Julie Flood, set out to
answer.
The research team invited 33 adults - 18 women and
15 men - to lunch once a week for six weeks. In this
crossover-design study, the same foods were served at each lunch,
but the accompanying beverage was rotated among cola, diet cola or
water. Two different portion sizes--12 ounces and 18 ounces--were
also tested.
The study, published in the Journal of the
American Dietetic Association, found that subjects ate
approximately the same amount of solid food, regardless of which
beverage was served. So total calories consumed shot up when a
sugared soft drink was served.
Similarly, the bigger the beverage served, the more
the participants drank. When the cola serving size increased 50%,
from 12 to 18 ounces, men drank 26% more liquid calories and women
drank 10% more.
The findings support the idea that liquids are less
filling than solid food--making beverages especially dangerous for
those trying to control calories. People have a different mindset
about drinking versus eating, Rolls adds, and thirst and hunger
are actually governed by separate mechanisms in the body.
When it comes to nutrition, not
all drinks are created equal. Click on the drink to see nutrition
facts about your favorite beverage.
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