Are You Drinking Your Way to Being Unhealthy?

Did you know that the average American consumes a hundred pounds of sugar per year? Did you know that more than half of that comes from soft drinks such as soda pop, fruit drinks and sugary alcoholic beverages? Well, it's true. Without even realizing it, you could be downing more than a thousand extra calories per day in beverages alone. Over the past fifty years, soda pop and soft drinks have taken the American market by storm. It's no wonder, we're American's- and we love our sugar. Pepsico and Coca-Cola Company are stock market heavyweights now, thanks to the millions of gallons of soft drinks that they sell. But did you ever stop and consider what all that extra sugar could be doing to you? Let's take a look.

First off on the health crisis train, we stop at calorie consumption station. The average fast food soda cup holds a whopping twenty-five ounces of beverage. In every eight ounces of cola, there are 100 calories, all of which derive from sugar and corn syrup. If you're doing that math, that twenty-five ounce fountain drink contains over 300 calories. And that's just in the soda, forget the burger and fries. With many Americans downing three or more cans of soda per day at home, you can account that almost 500 calories of their daily intake is in pure, sugary calories. That is only three twelve ounce cans per day- many of us indulge in much more than that. Giving up that habit, or trading it in for water (or at least a diet cola) and you could save yourself a weight gain of more than a pound per month, or twelve pounds per year.