Soda Consumption Down as Consumers Seek Healthy Beverage Alternatives

Soda consumption is declining across the country as more and more Americans switch to healthy beverage alternatives. Last year, the average American drank slightly under two sodas a day, a drop in per-capita consumption of about 16 percent since the peak in 1998, according to the trade publication Beverage Digest. This trend has been accelerating since the middle of the last decade.

More and more schools are removing sugary soft drinks from vending machines and local governments from New England to Texas are stepping up efforts to take them out of public facilities as the nation’s concerns about the cost of obesity grow. This has the major soda manufacturers scrambling to make up lost sales and profits by both raising the price and relying on so-called “flat drinks” and bottled waters in their product line.

There is the potential, however, for a dangerous misconception that all carbonated drinks are bad for you and all non-carbonated beverages are healthy. Syfo Naturally-Flavored Sparkling Waters are carbonated beverages with no sugar, sodium, artificial sweeteners or preservatives and are perfectly healthy for you. Some non-carbonated sports and energy drinks that have high amounts of sugar, citric acid, caffeine and other additives have been found to cause dental enamel erosion. Even some fruit juices can contain high amounts of sugar and other chemicals (see our Arsenic in Apple Juice post).