Americans are adding more whole grains, nuts and seeds to their diets and cutting back on sodas and sugary drinks, a U.S. study suggests.
While these changes point to some improvements in U.S. eating habits over the past decade, many people still consume too much sugar and processed food and not enough whole fruits and vegetables, the study published in JAMA found.
“The overall diet is still far from optimal – less than one-third of American adults meet guidelines for most foods,” said senior study author Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, dean of the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy in Boston.
“The single biggest focus should be on reducing highly processed foods rich in refined grains, starch, added sugars and salt; and increasing minimally processed healthful foods such as fruits, non-starchy vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, fish and yogurt,” Mozaffarian added by email.
Researchers looked at trends in eating habits for almost 34,000 adults aged 20 or older who participated in seven nationally representative surveys from 1999 to 2012.
The study team scored diets based, among other things, on how well people followed recommendations from the American Heart Association (AHA) that are designed to help prevent chronic health problems like cardiovascular disease.
Under these guidelines, a healthy diet includes at least 4.5 cups a day of fruits and vegetables, at least three ounces a day of fiber-rich whole grains and at least seven ounces a week of fish. It also caps sodium intake at 1,500 milligrams a day, the amount in three quarters of a teaspoon (3.75 g) of salt, and limits sodas and sugary juices at 36 ounces (1 liter) a week.
Overall, the percentage of Americans with poor diets based on these AHA standards dropped from 56 percent to 46 percent during the study period. The proportion of people with ideal diets was low but inched up to 1.5 percent from less than 1 percent.
Racial disparities in eating habits persisted throughout the study period. The proportion of white people with poor diets declined, while remaining little changed among black and Hispanic adults.
More affluent adults saw greater improvements in diet than lower-income people, the study also found.
For some eating patterns – including consumption of total vegetables, whole grains, unprocessed red meat and milk – trends over time were similar regardless of race, ethnicity, income or education levels. Intake of these things was consistently higher for more affluent people and white people and lower for poor people and black and Hispanic adults.
At the same time, salt intake was unchanged for white people but increased for black and Hispanic people during the study period.
Refined grain consumption dropped for white and black adults while increasing for Hispanics.
Limitations of the study include its reliance on survey participants to accurately recall and report what they ate and drank, as well as the potential for diet fads or food trends in popular culture to influence how people described their diets, the authors note.
Even so, the findings suggest that doctors need to do a better job educating patients about how to eat and how food choices influence their health, Dr. Margo Denke, a former researcher at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas noted in an accompanying editorial.
Physicians also have to recognize that improving diets may be not be just a question of education, but of access and affordability, Denke added by email. While it’s possible some people are confused about what to eat, the bigger problem is that they aren’t sure what to do when fresh produce isn’t at their local store.
“The import of less expensive fruits and vegetables I believe drove improved intake among those who have higher incomes,” Denke said. “How can we pass this on to those who are financially struggling?”
Bucking a historic trend, Americans reportedly consumed more bottled water than soda in 2016.
According to the Beverage Marketing Corporation, bottled water sales volume grew to 12.8 billion gallons, resulting in about 39 gallons of bottled water per person, as opposed to the estimated 38.5 gallons of soft drinks.
Though this raises concerns for whether Americans are efficiently recycling the materials used to package bottled water, the report offers hope for tackling the surging obesity rate countrywide.
Obesity, which affects over 3 million Americans, increases the risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and arthritis. It also costs taxpayers and individuals over $200 billion in medical costs annually.
So while the excessive use of plastic may be worrisome for the environment, the growing popularity of bottled water illustrates a trend toward healthier lifestyle choices.
“Bottled water effectively reshaped the beverage marketplace,” Michael C. Bellas, Beverage Marketing’s CEO said in a statement. “Where once it would have been unimaginable to see Americans walking down the street carrying plastic bottles of water, or driving around with them in their cars’ cup holders, now that’s the norm.”
Sugary beverages, soda chief among them, have been blamed for rising rates of obesity and related chronic diseases in developed countries, and there’s evidence to support such claims.
Story at-a-glance
Gregory Hand, the former dean of the West Virginia School of Public Health, was forced out as dean because of his involvements with Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola reportedly gave Hand more than half a million dollars to start a nonprofit group tasked with spreading the word that lack of exercise, and not sugary beverages, is responsible for obesity.
The beverage giant also gave Hand $806,500 to conduct an “energy flux” study in 2011
Michael Pratt, senior adviser for Global Health in the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at the CDC, has also promoted and led research for Coca-Cola
Leading beverage companies like Coca-Cola, however, want the public to believe they’re not part of the problem but rather are innocent scapegoats.
To get this message across and save their quickly deflating public image, Coca-Cola gave money — a lot of money — to Gregory Hand, the former dean of the West Virginia School of Public Health, to start a nonprofit group called the Global Energy Balance Network.
In early August 2016, the school announced Hand had been demoted and was forced out as dean because of his seemingly unscrupulous involvements with Coca-Cola, although he will still be working at the school in another role.
The purpose of the now-defunct Global Energy Balance Network, for instance, was to promote the message that lack of exercise, and not sugary beverages, is responsible for obesity.
Coca-Cola reportedly gave Hand more than half a million dollars to start the misleading nonprofit. About a year ago, health experts called the nonprofit’s message “misleading” and “an effort by Coke to deflect criticism about the role sugary drinks have played in the spread of obesity and Type 2 diabetes.”1
West Virginia School of Public Health Dean Forced to Step Down Due to Coca-Cola Conflicts
The formation of the Global Energy Balance Network was only one of Hand’s underhanded dealings with Coca-Cola. The beverage giant also gave Hand $806,500 to conduct an “energy flux” study in 2011.
When leaders in public health are partnering with soda makers to downplay the risks such beverages pose in obesity, heart disease, diabetes and more, clearly they have not only failed in their duty to protect public health but also have taken steps to worsen it.
Gary Ruskin of the public interest group U.S. Right to Know told Corporate Crime Reporter:2
“Gregory Hand betrayed West Virginia taxpayers and his public health profession by helping Coca-Cola to evade responsibility for its role in the obesity epidemic …
Hand’s role as dean was to improve public health, but he did the opposite … It’s a good start that Hand was removed from his post at dean, but he should be fired from West Virginia University.”
Coca-Cola Front Group Shut Down After Bad Press
The Global Energy Balance Network was basically a front group aimed at confusing you about soda science and diverting attention away from evidence showing soda is a major contributor to obesity and diabetes.
One of the group’s primary messages was to tout exercise as the science-backed solution to obesity — while downplaying the importance of dietary issues, like soda consumption.
Coca-Cola did not come right out and disclose that they were behind the supposedly scientific front group — they were outed by The New York Times in August 2015.3
After The New York Times report, the front group received so much bad press and criticism that one of their academic ties, the University of Colorado School of Medicine, said it would return the $1 million grant Coca-Cola had given them to help start the group.
Public health authorities accused the group of using tobacco-industry tactics to raise doubts about the health hazards of soda, and a letter signed by more than three-dozen scientists said the group was spreading “scientific nonsense.”4
By December 2015, the Global Energy Balance Network announced it would be shutting down, with Coca-Cola claiming it was working on increased transparency.5
Even CDC Officials Have Close Ties With Coca-Cola
Another leader in public health, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), should be cracking down on corporations promoting products linked to poor health and disease. Instead, they appear to have taken the company under their protective wing.
Earlier this year, for instance, Barbara Bowman, Ph. D., former director of the CDC’s Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention (DHDSP), left the agency unexpectedly, two days after her close ties with Coca-Cola were revealed.
Bowman reportedly aided a Coca-Cola representative in efforts to influence World Health Organization (WHO) officials to relax recommendations on sugar limits.6 Bowman, however, was not the only CDC official looking out for Coca-Cola.
Uncovered emails now suggest that Michael Pratt, senior adviser for Global Health in the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at the CDC, has also promoted and led research for the soda giant. According to The Huffington Post:7
“Pratt did not respond to questions about his work, which includes a position as a professor at Emory University, a private research university in Atlanta that has received millions of dollars from the Coca-Cola Foundation and more than $100 million from famed longtime Coca-Cola leader Robert W. Woodruff and Woodruff’s brother George.
Indeed, Coca-Cola’s financial support for Emory is so strong that the university states on its website that ‘it’s unofficially considered poor school spirit to drink other soda brands on campus.’”
Coca-Cola CEO Assures Media That People Are Still Spending Money on Soda
Research suggests sugary beverages are to blame for about 183,000 deaths worldwide each year, including 133,000 diabetes deaths, 44,000 heart disease deaths and 6,000 cancer deaths. The health risks must be catching on, as soda consumption has been on a steady decline for decades.
Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of Americans say they actively try to avoid soda in their diet,8 and Americans now consume about the same amount they did back in 1986. Meanwhile, Coca-Cola sales fell 5 percent to $11.54 billion, from $12.16 billion in the year-ago quarter, according to Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent.9
Despite this, Kent told the media that “consumers are still buying and spending money on sparkling beverages,” just in smaller amounts. The company has adopted a new strategy of selling smaller sizes of soft drinks at a higher margin in efforts to boost revenue.
Soda May Increase the Risk of Gallbladder and Bile Duct Cancer
Coca-Cola has spent nearly $120 million on grants given to health organizations, including cancer organizations,10 in recent years, which is ironic since soda has been linked to an increased risk of cancer.
Recently, a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute revealed high consumption of sweetened beverages may increase the risk of rare cancers in the gallbladder and bile ducts around the liver.11
The finding is particularly noteworthy because research suggests obesity and elevated blood sugar levels (often found in diabetes) may increase the risk of these rare cancers — and both obesity and diabetes have, in turn, been linked to sugary drinks.
Diet Soda May Disrupt Your Gut Microbiota
As we’ve seen many times over, the solution to avoiding the health risks of sugary beverages is NOT to switch to artificially sweetened diet soda, as these beverages have just as much risk as their sugar-sweetened cousins — if not more so.
Studies have found that artificial sweeteners, including aspartame, may lead to weight gain12 and glucose intolerance by altering gut microbiota.13
Unbeknownst to many, aspartame has been found toincreasehunger ratings compared to glucose or water and is associated with heightened motivation to eat (even more so than other artificial sweeteners like saccharin or acesulfame potassium).14
For a substance often used in “diet” products, the fact that aspartame may actually increaseweight gain is incredibly misleading. A study published in the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism also found that consuming aspartame may be associated with greater glucose intolerance, particularly for people who are obese. According to the study:15
“This study provides evidence that consumption of aspartame may be associated with greater diabetes risk in individuals with higher adiposity. Aspartame is reported to be associated with changes in gut microbiota that are associated with impairments in insulin resistance in lean and obese rodents.
We observe that aspartame was related to significantly greater impairments in glucose tolerance for individuals with obesity … ”
Diet Soda May Make You Consume More Calories
It’s a myth that drinking diet soda can help you lose weight. On the contrary, a recent study on fruit flies again found that artificial sweeteners may make you eat more than you normally would.16 For the study, fruit flies were fed a diet of food sweetened with sucralose (Spenda) or sugar for five days.
Those fed sucralose ate about 30 percent more calories than those fed sugar. The researchers then revealed that sucralose activated a fasting response in the flies, which triggered them to eat more to compensate for the perceived lack of food.17
A similar study conducted in mice yielded similar results, with the mice fed sucralose consuming more food. What’s more, when the flies were fed real sugar later on, the brains of those that had been used to consuming artificial sweeteners responded differently. They showed more activity in response to the sugar, which suggests it tasted sweeter after getting used to artificial sweeteners. Study author Herbert Herzog told Forbes:18
“These findings further reinforce the idea that ‘sugar-free’ varieties of processed food and drink may not be as inert as we anticipated … Artificial sweeteners can actually change how animals perceive the sweetness of their food, with a discrepancy between sweetness and energy levels prompting an increase in caloric consumption.”
Not to mention, 92 percent of independently funded studies found aspartame, which is often used in diet soda, may cause adverse effects beyond increased calorie consumption, including depression and headaches.19 Writing in Vice, one woman also shared her story of how suffering from chronic migraines virtually ruined her 20s — until a migraine specialist finally made the connection to diet soda.
She was drinking close to three bottles of aspartame-sweetened diet soda a day and suffering from multiple migraines a week. When she gave up the diet soda, the migraines went away.20
Don’t Fall for Coca-Cola’s Marketing — Give up Soda to Protect Your Health
Despite Coca-Cola’s slick marketing campaigns, government ties and heavy contributions to academia to give the illusion that drinking soda is perfectly healthy, the fact remains that this is one dietary habit worth kicking to the curb. Your best, most cost effective, choice of beverage is filtered tap water. I strongly recommend using a high-quality water filtration system unless you can verify the purity of your water. Seltzer or mineral water is another option.
Adding a squeeze of lemon or lime is one way to add some flavor and variety, and many soda drinkers find it easier to ditch soda when replacing it with some sparkling water. Unsweetened tea and coffee can also be healthy beverage choices. As for a safer sweetener option, you could use stevia or Luo Han, both of which are safe natural sweeteners.
However, if you struggle with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, or extra weight, then you have insulin sensitivity issues and would likely benefit from avoiding all sweeteners, including stevia and Luo Han. In order to break free of your soda habit, be sure you also address the emotional component of your cravings using tools such as the Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT).
Turbo Tapping, in particular, is an extremely effective and simple tool to get rid of your soda addiction in a short amount of time. In addition, soda cravings may be a sign that you need to make some changes to your diet to better fulfill your nutritional requirements. My free nutrition plan can help you do this in a step-by-step manner.
Numerous studies have shown the negative health effects of drinking soda on your waistline and your teeth. Drinking soda however, has far more serious health risks than many of us may realize.
According to Euromonitor, the average person in the United States consumes more than 126 grams of sugar per day. That’s equal to 25.2 teaspoons, or the equivalent of drinking a little over three 12 ounce colas.
Numerous studies have shown the negative health effects of drinking soda on your waistlineand your teeth. Drinking soda however, has far more health risks than many of us may realize.Regular consumption of sugary drinks is linked to numerous health problems including diabetes, heart disease, asthma, COPD and obesity.
So what are the risks and how much soda is too much? Let’s take a look:
1. Soda can cause a decline in kidney function. In an 11-year-long Harvard Medical School study, including 3,318 women, researchers found that diet cola is linked with a two-fold increased risk for kidney decline.
2. Soda increases diabetes risk. High levels of sugar in soda places a lot of stress on your pancreas, potentially leaving it unable to keep up with the body’s need for insulin. Drinking one or two sugary drinks per day increases your risk for type 2 diabetes by 25%.
4. Soda dehydrates you. Caffeine is a diuretic. Diuretics promote the production of urine, causing you to urinate more frequently. When the body’s cells are dehydrated they have difficulty absorbing nutrients, and it also makes it more difficult for the body to eliminate waste.
5. Caramel coloring in soda is linked to cancer. The artificial brown coloring in colas is a chemical process, it is not made from caramelized sugar. It is made by reacting sugars with ammonia and sulfites under high pressure and temperatures. These chemical reactions result in the formation of 2-methylimidazole (2-MI) and 4 methylimidazole (4-MI), which in government-conducted studies caused lung, liver, or thyroid cancer or leukemia in laboratory mice and rats.
6. Caramel coloring in soda is linked to vascular issues. Dr. Nehal N. Mehta, director of Inflammatory Risk Cardiology at the University of Pennsylvania states that there is a link between vascular problems and caramel-containing products.
7. Soda is high in calories. A 20 ounce can of Coca Cola contains 17 teaspoons of sugar and 240 calories…empty calories devoid of any nutritional value. It would take the average adult over one hour of walking to burn off the 240 calories in a 20-ounce soda.
8. Caffeine in soda blocks the absorption of magnesium. According to Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D. Magnesium is essential for more than 325 enzyme reactions in the body. Magnesium also plays a role in your body’s detoxification processes and therefore is important for minimizing damage from environmental chemicals, heavy metals, and other toxins.
9. Soda increases obesity risk in children. Each additional soda or other sugary drink consumed per day increases the likelihood of a child becoming obese by about 60%. Sugary drinks are connected to other health problems as well.
10. Soda increases heart disease in men. Each soda consumed per day increases the risk of heart disease by 20% in men.
11. Acid in soda wears away dental enamel. Lab testing on soda acidity shows that the amount of acid in soda is enough to wear away dental enamel. pH levels in soda can be as low as 2.5, as a frame of reference battery acid has a pH of 1, water has a pH of 7.0.
12.Soda contains high amounts of sugar. The average 20-ounce can of Coca Cola has the equivalent of 17 teaspoons of sugar, it’s not hard to see that soda can be bad for your teeth and your overall health.
13. Soda contains artificial sweeteners. While many people opt for artificial sugar to lower caloric intake the tradeoff for your health isn’t so sweet. Artificial sugars are linked to numerous illness and diseases including cancer.
14. Soda depletes your mineral levels. Sodas that contain phosphoric acid removes much needed calcium from your bones. After studying several thousand men and woman, researchers at Tufts University, found that women who drank 3 or more cola based sodas a day, had almost 4% lower bone mineral density in their hips, even though researchers controlled their calcium and vitamin D intake.
15. Drinking soda changes your metabolism. Dr. Hans-Peter Kubis, the director of the Health Exercise and Rehabilitation group at Bangor University in England, has found that drinking soda on a regular basis can actually change the metabolism in the human body. Participants drank 140 grams of sugar every day for four weeks (that’s less than two 20 ounce cans of Coke). The results: their metabolism changed after the four weeks, making it more difficult for them to burn fat and lose weight.
16. Drinking more than one soda daily, increases your risk for heart disease and metabolic syndrome. According to Ravi Dhingra, M.D., lead author of the study and an instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School states “If you are drinking one or more soft drinks a day, you may be increasing your risk of developing metabolic risk factors for heart disease.” The Framingham study included nearly 9,000 individuals, over a four year period. Researchers found that individuals consuming one or more sodas a day had a 48 % increased risk of metabolic syndrome compared to those consuming less than one soft drink daily.
17. Diet soda does not help you lose weight. A University of Texas Health Science Center study found that the more diet sodas a person drank, the greater their risk of becoming overweight. Consuming two or more cans a day increased waistlines by 500% greater than those who do not consume diet soda.
18. Diet sodas contain mold inhibitors. They go by the names sodium benzoate or potassium benzoate, and they’re used in nearly all diet sodas. “These chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally inactivate it – they knock it out altogether,” Peter Piper, a professor of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the University of Sheffield in the U.K., told a British newspaper. The preservative has also been linked to hives,asthma, and other allergic conditions, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
Note: Some companies have phased out sodium benzoate. Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi have replaced it with another preservative, potassium benzoate. Both sodium and potassium benzoate were classified by the Food Commission in the UK as mild irritants to the skin, eyes, and mucous membranes.
19. Sodas containing ascorbic acid and potassium benzoate can form benzene, a known carcinogen. Benzene can form in beverages and foods that contain both ascorbic acid and potassium benzoate. According to the FDA, when benzoate is exposed to light and heat in the presence of vitamin C, it can be converted into benzene. According to the American Cancer Society, benzene is considered a carcinogen
20. Daily sodas and other sugar sweetened drinks are linked to Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD). The 2,634 individuals in the study completed a CT scan to measure the amount of fat in the liver. They saw a higher prevalence of NAFLD among people who reported drinking more than one sugar-sweetened drink per day compared to people who said they drank no sugar-sweetened beverages.
21.Some sodas contain flame retardant.Brominated vegetable oil (BVO) is added to many citrus based sodas and sports drinks to prevent the drinks from separating. What’s the concern? BVO is patented by chemical companies as a flame retardant. It is also banned in over 100 countries, but it is still used in the U.S. Learn more here.
22. Soda is linked to Asthma. A study done in South Australis of 16,907 participants aged 16 years and older, showed high levels of soda consumption were positively associated with asthma and COPD.
The study, by researchers atColumbia University, the University of Vermont and theHarvard School of Public Health, followed nearly 3,000 five-year-olds in 20 large U.S. cities. The children’s mothers reported on their soft drink consumption and also assessed their behavior through a checklist provided by researchers.
More than 40 percent of the moms reported that their children consumed at least one serving of soda per day, with another four percent consuming at least four servings per day.
Researchers found that aggression, withdrawal and attention problems were all associated withsoda consumption. Children who drank four or moresoft drinksper day were more than twice as likely to destroy things, get into fights and physically attack people. They also had more trouble paying attention and acted withdrawn more often.
“We found that the child’s aggressive behavior score increased with every increase in soft drinks servings per day,” said Dr.Shakira Suglia, of Columbia’s MailmanSchool of Public Health.
Researchers controlled for other factors that could contribute to poor behavior, such as how much television children watched, theirconsumptionof sweets, and whether their fathers were incarcerated, but the link between soda consumption andbehavioral problemsstill held.
In a report published inThe Journal of Pediatrics, researchers conceded that they couldn’t identify “the nature of the association between soft drinks and the problem behaviors” but suggested that the ingredients in highly processed sodas — particularly caffeine — may affect behavior.
They also questioned whether “underlying organic” conditions have could played a role in their findings, such as low blood sugar, which “could lead children both to want soda and to be aggressive or withdrawn.”
TheAmerican Beverage Association, in response to the study, said it was “a leap to suggest that drinking soda causes these or any other behavioral issue” and noted the study’s limitations.
The association, which represents Coca-Cola and PepsiCo along with other beverage companies, also stressed that it and its members “do not promote or market the consumption of soft drinks to children in the age group examined in this study.”
Marketing strategies aside, children even younger than five have been known to consume soft drinks. A 2009 report by ABC News uncovered the problem of tooth decay in children as young as 2 in Central Applachia, where the decay is blamed on the excessive consumption of soda — sometimes through children’s sippy cups — and is often referred to as “Mountain Dew mouth.” (Following the report, PepsiCo, the maker ofMountain Dew, said it would work to recruit more dentists to the region and also help a dentist already treating patients there.)
While the Columbia soda study may lead some parent to decide to leave soft drinks off their grocery lists for good, some say that moderation for adults and a “just say no” attitude toward kids may be a more practical answer.
“I don’t plan on giving up my occasional Cherry Coke anytime soon just because I have kids and I sure as heck shouldn’t have to hide it, ” California mom andBabble blogger Lori Garciawrote in a recent post. “Our job as parents is to provide kid-friendly beverages outside of soda to offer our thirsty kids. Will our kids continue to ask for soda when they see it in the fridge? You bet, but guess what? The answer will be no. Cry about it, whine about it, keep asking – the answer willstillbe no.”
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