U.S. children get about 7% of their daily calories from sugary drinks
According to CNN, a new study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sheds light on just how many calories and added sugars children are drinking.
According to CNN, a new study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sheds light on just how many calories and added sugars children are drinking. Almost two-thirds of children in the United States consumed at least one sugary beverage on any given day—and roughly 30% consumed two or more a day—between 2011 and 2014.
On average, drinking two or more sugar-sweetened beverages a day provided more than 10% of the total daily calories among the children, said Asher Rosinger, epidemic intelligence service officer at the CDC and lead author of the study. Current U.S. dietary guidelines recommend consuming less than 10% of your daily calories from added sugars and limiting or removing sugar-sweetened beverages from your diet.
For the study, researchers analyzed data on the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages among children and adults in the United States from 2011 to 2014. The data came from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The researchers assessed the number of times children and adults drank sugar-sweetened beverages and then summed the number of calories.
The researchers found that among children, aged 2–19, 64.5% of boys and 61.3% of girls consumed at least one sugar-sweetened beverage on a given day. Overall, children consumed an average of 143 calories and 7.3% of their daily energy intake from sugary beverages.