New Soda Labeling Will Include TOTAL Calories...

We like our drinks way too sweet, but the total picture could change our minds.

Americans love to drink their calories. In fact, Dr. Jessica Bartfield, MD, medical weight-loss specialist at Gottlieb Memorial Hospital told Science Daily, "10 percent of overweight adults consume 450 calories of sugar sweetened beverages per day, which is three times that of an average American. Cutting 450 calories per day would lead to about a 1 pound per week weight loss, close to 50 pounds in one year."

Can you imagine getting 450 calories a day from soda? That's nearly a third of my daily caloric recommendation. But the fact of the matter is that it's easier than you think to make this mistake. Twenty ounce bottles of soda list the amount of calories and sugar per serving but often there are more than two servings per bottle. Your average 20 ounce bottle can have 450 calories right there. One serving is an 8 ounce can and now you can also buy the mini servings at about 100 calories a pop. But this is all changing, according to an article on Science Daily.

The front labels of packaged beverages now include the total number of calories in containers of 20 ounces or less. "Beverage containers traditionally 'hid' the nutritional content at the back in a small square with small print and cleverly listed just the calorie content per serving," Dr. Bartfield said. Soda Linked to Obesity While we may envision nostalgic days of sipping on a coke from a frosty glass bottle, times have changed dramatically in this country. The average American drinks more than 50 gallons of soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages each year. That level of consumption adds about 39 pounds of sugar to a person's diet. According to Dr. Harold Goldstein of the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, "[t]he science [is] clear and conclusive: soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages are leading contributors to the nation's runaway obesity epidemic."

Soda Linked to Type 2 Diabetes Study researcher Vasanti Malik from the Department of Nutrition, at the Harvard School of Public Health said that the "findings from our meta-analyses show a clear link between sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and risk of metabolic syndrome and type2 diabetes."