Soda's Evil Twin: The Dangers of Fruit Drinks

Soda's EVILTWIN The Dangers of "FRUIT DRINKS" 99 In one year, Most of this is SUGAR WE DRINK, and the average excess sugar intake is a driving force behind the obesity epidemic. Al- though soda gets most of the blame, the fastest-growing marketing sector for beverage companies is American consumes 45us LBS of sugar so-called "FRUIT DRINKS." If this weren't bad enough, parents and children are becoming beverage companies' new favorite targets. Enough to fill a wheelbarrow Fruit Drinks Are SODA IN DISGUISE The FDA states that any drink ONLY 44% can be called a 'fruit drink' as long as it has some fruit juice- of fruit drinks contain any juice EVEN LESS THAN 1% The median contains just Other pseudonyms: juice drinks, juice beverages, fruit cocktails and fruit- flavored drinks 10% BIGGEST OFFENDERS MINUTE MAID SNAPPLE OCEAN SPRAY NANTUCKET NECTARS CAPRI SUN FRUIT DRINKS SODA VS. Beverage makers would like you to believe that fruit drinks are healthy, but they're not. Fruit drinks often have MORE CALORIES than Coke MINUTE MAID CRANBERRY COCA-COLA FRIED CHICKEN LEG 150 97 115 8 OZ. calories calories calories Fruit drinks can also have MORE SUGAR than Coke 2.5 GLAZED KRISPY KREME SNAPPLE APPLE COCA-COLA 27 266 256 8 OZ. 8 OZ. of sugar of sugar of sugar Тhe 16 тost. sugary beverages on the market are all FRUIT DRINKS .not sodas. WHY IS THIS SO DISTURBING? OUR KIDS' HEALTH IS IN THE MOST DANGER For every 8-oz. sugary drink Excess sugar consumption is per day, a child's odds of obesity increase 60%. connected to heart disease and type-2 diabetes as well. WHO'S BEHIND THIS? The answer: big beverage companies. BEVERAGE COMPANIES JUST 4 COMPANIES ARE SPENT A RECORD RESPONSIBLE FOR NEARLY $948M 70% of sugary drinks on the advertising sugary drinks in 2010 market: I COCA-COLA Fruit drinks made up more than 50% of all sugary bev- erages marketed in 2010 I PEPSI-CO DR. PEPPER SNAPPLE GROUP KRAFT FOODS SUGARY BEVERAGES MARKETED IN 2010 - FRUIT DRINKS 83 - ENERGY DRINKS - SPORTS DRINKS 335 50 - REGULAR SODA - ICED TEA 79 - FLAVORED WATER 61 36 TARGETING OUR KIDS 1/3 of fruit drinks sold in 2010 was for kids. WHEN TARGETING KIDS, JUICE AND SODA COMPANIES FOCUS ON SCHOOLS: Beverage industry expenditures on youth-targeted marketing programs in '06 $175M. $150M $125M $100M $75M - $50M $25M SOM IN-SCHOOL TV ADS IN-STORE EVENTS RADIO DIGITAL The average child saw 211 commercials for sugary drinks in 2010. The average teen saw 406. WHAT CONSUMERS CAN DO 1 1 SCRUTINIZE PACKAGING CLAIMS Photos of real fruit and labels like "contains real juice" and "natural flavors" try to fool consumers. Look closely at sugar and calories. 2 PUSH LAWMAKERS FOR REGULATION VOTE VES The beverage industry has made a lot of promises about self-regulating advertising, but its actual actions have been minimal. 3 3 DRINK WATER Most humans throughout history have maintained hydration just fine without sugary drinks. When you have to choose a beverage, choose water. HEALTHSCIENCE.NET REFERENCES: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sugart.html?pagewanted=all http://www.sugarydrinkfacts.org/resources/SugaryDrinkFACTS_Report.pdf http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-juice8- 2009novo8,0,58o9992,full.story http://eugenization.com/max-learns-about-fatty-liver-and-fructose/ http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/02/11/health/main673229.shtml\ http://krispykreme.com/nutri.pdf http://www.sugarstacks.com/beverages.htm http://caloriecount.about.com/calories-chicken-breaded-fried-dark-meat-i21035 http://www.livestrong.com/article/357928-the-effect-of high- fructose-corn-syrup-on-metabolism/ BY NC ND This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.