Americans Drinking More and Drinking More High-Calorie Beverages

CHAPEL HILL, N.C., Nov. 21 -- The number of calories that adults obtain from beverages each day nearly doubled from 1965 through 2002, and calories from soda, fruit drinks, alcohol, and other sugary drinks quadrupled, researchers here said.
Action Points
Explain to interested patients that many beverages, including sugary sodas, fruit drinks, and alcohol are high in calories and can contribute to obesity and health problems related to obesity.
Explain that adults have been consuming more and more calories from sugary beverages and are not eating less food to compensate for the increase in calories.
And those extra calories are not being compensated for by a decrease in food intake, reported Barry M. Popkin, Ph.D., and Kiyah J. Duffey, both of the University of North Carolina, in the November issue of Obesity.
The researchers analyzed data from the Nationwide Food Consumption Surveys (1965, 1977 to 1978) and the National Health and Nutrition Surveys (1988 to 1994, 1999 to 2002) to quantify both trends and patterns in beverage consumption among 46,576 American adults 19 and older.
For six broad beverage groups they calculated the total energy intake, percent consuming such beverages, and calories per consumer, and determined total intake in fluid ounces for each beverage group during each exam year.
In addition, they used cluster analysis to identify 5 different groups of individuals who had similar patterns of beverage consumption and compared the beverages those groups drank in 1977 and 2002 to determine if the combinations had changed.
From 1965 through 2002, the total daily per capita intake of calories from beverages increased 94%, which translates into an average of 21% of daily energy intake or an additional 222 calories from all beverages daily among U.S. adults.
In 1965, the percentage of calories consumed from beverages was 11.8%. In 1977, that percentage had risen to 14.2%; it jumped to 18.5% in 1988 and to 21% in 2002. Overall, the number of calories from beverages increased from 236 calories per person per day in 1965 to 458 calories per day in 2002 (P0.01).
Intake of sugary drinks, including soda, fruit drinks, and sweetened tea and coffee increased from 50 calories per person per day in 1965 to 203 in 2002 (P0.01), and alcohol consumption rose from 26 calories per person per day to 99 (P0.01).
"Beverages are now contributing a greater number of total calories to daily intake and represent a larger proportion of daily caloric intake than at any other time in the past," the researchers said.
Consumption patterns also changed over the study period. For instance, in 1965 only 4.9% of respondents reported drinking low-fat milk and 64.7% said they drank whole milk. In 2002, whole-milk consumption was down, with just 39.4% drinking it, and the percentage of low-fat milk drinkers increased to 18.6%.
Similarly, consumption of water and sports drinks wasn't even measured in 1965, but in 2002, 89% of respondents reported drinking water and 1.5% reported drinking sports drinks.
Interpretation of the study results should be viewed cautiously, the authors said, because methods of collecting the data changed over the course of the four surveys.
Other limitations include the fact that data was collected over just one season in 1965 and systematic under-reporting is possible, particularly among individuals who are overweight.
But, "for the average American, beverages represent a significant source of excess calories providing, for the most part, little added nutritional benefit above what would be obtained by consuming whole foods," the researchers conclude. "While children are mostly targeted for policies regarding access to various beverages the present study shows that this is also a salient issue for adults."
The study was supported by Unilever Health Institute. Neither of the study authors reported any conflicts of interest.
Primary source: ObesitySource reference: Duffey K, Popkin B, "Shifts in patterns and consumption of beverages between 1965 and 2002" Obesity 2007.