Sugary drinks—any beverages that contain added caloric sweeteners—are the single largest source of calories in children’s diets and provide nearly half of kids’ added sugar intake. On average, kids are drinking more than 30 gallons of sugary drinks per year. These drinks, sometimes also called sugar-sweetened beverages or SSBs, include sports drinks, energy drinks, sodas, fruit-ades, sweetened waters, sweetened coffee and tea.
This special feature highlights the latest data and trends on sugary drink consumption and facts about how sugary drinks impact kids’ health. It summarizes efforts and recommendations for reducing consumption, recent research, and stories of communities taking action.
Consuming sugary drinks poses a real health risk to kids—and adults. It increases children’s risk of excess weight gain and tooth decay and preventable diseases such as obesity. For adults, consuming sugary drinks also increases risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Latinx and Black populations have higher rates of these diseases, which is in part due to consuming sugary drinks.
Sugary drinks are the top source6 of added sugar in kids’ diets. Nearly two thirds7 (61%) of U.S. children and youth consume sugary drinks each day; among children ages 2 to 4, nearly half8 (46%) do. Learn more about the different patterns of consumption by age, race and ethnicity.
Source: NHANES, Added Sugars in American’s Children’s Diets, 2015-16
Source: NHANES, Beverage Choices Among US Children, 2015-16
Source: NHANES, What We Eat in America, 2015-16
Source: NHANES, Added Sugars in American’s Children’s Diets, 2015-16. Note: The other sources of added sugar in children’s diets that were studied include sweet bakery products (e.g., cakes, cookies, pies), candy, other desserts, ready-to-eat cereals, and flavored milk.
Over roughly the last decade, the percentage of young people who are heavy consumers of sugary drinks—drinking about 3.5 12-ounce cans of soda each day—has dropped significantly. These declines were significant across family income level, sex, and for white, Black, Mexican-American and non-Mexican Hispanic youth.
In 2018 alone, companies spent more than $1 billion on advertising sugary drinks.
A UConn Rudd Center Sugary Drink FACTS report9, released in June 2020, also found that:
Deceptive marketing practices shape kids’ preferences and purchases, and therefore, their diets, overall health and life trajectory. These practices are particularly targeted toward communities of color10 through place-based marketing, prices designed to appeal to specific income groups, promotions that exploit cultural images and language, and products that are developed specifically for their communities.
Kids are particularly vulnerable to unfair advertising and marketing practices. Research shows companies spend more money directing sugary drink ads at Black and Latinx youth – and companies target kids as young as age 2 with TV ads for sugary drinks. For example, spending on sports drink advertising increased 745% from 2013 to 2018 and exposure to these ads among Latinx kids increased 10-fold or more during that period. In 2018, Black children and teens saw twice as many ads for sugary drinks as their white peers.
The majority of children’s drinks sold in 201811 were sweetened fruit drinks and flavored waters with added sugars and/or low-calorie sweeteners. Looking at the front of the packages, many sugary children’s drinks appear to be healthy choices, with images of fruit and nutrition-related claims, but none meet expert recommendations for drinks that should be served to children under age 14.
At the federal, state and local levels, community members and decision-makers are creating and implementing policies to promote healthy beverages and curb kids’ consumption of sugary drinks.
RWJF Senior Program Officer, Jamie B. Bussel
Seven U.S. cities and the Navajo Nation have passed taxes on sugary drinks, ranging in value from one to two cents per ounce. Research has generally found that the taxes result in people buying significantly fewer sugary drinks. Some studies show people are consuming fewer sugary drinks overall after the taxes pass. And, revenue programs are helping to address health and socioeconomic disparities in some communities.
The American Academy of Pediatrics and American Heart Association have jointly endorsed a suite of policies to reduce kids’ consumption of sugary drinks. Citing strong evidence linking consumption of added sugar to long-term health challenges, the organizations endorsed several options to reduce health harms. See the recommendations.
In 2019, four national public health organizations released guidelines for what babies and kids ages 0-5 should drink, recommending water and plain milk as the go-to drinks for young kids. Drinks with added sugars or low-calorie sweeteners are not recommended for children under the age of 5. Unfortunately, a 2019 Rudd Center report showed that not one of the 34 top-selling sweetened children’s drinks met expert recommendations for healthier drinks. Read the guidelines.
Researchers identified three obesity-related interventions that would save more in healthcare costs than they would cost to implement: sugary drink taxes; elimination of the tax subsidy for advertising unhealthy food to children; and nutrition standards for food and drinks sold in schools outside of school meals. Read the study.
ChangeLab Solutions produced a 10-strategy guidebook to help communities reduce consumption of sugary drinks, including considerations for health equity and collaboration across sectors. See the playbook.
Healthy Eating Research developed a national research agenda that outlines research gaps and opportunities for practitioners, researchers and foundations to pursue in order to reduce sugary drink consumption and increase safe water access and consumption among kids age 5 and younger. Read the agenda.
