Statistic on soda consumption and a poll

[Ginevra]

I was surprised to read a stat that said 90% of American children (presumably including teens) drink at least one soda per day. I did not think it was quite that common. Do you find this stat probable? Is it true for your children?

[Zydruna]

My dd rarely has it, but occasionally she does ask if a restaurant has a special flavor or she wants a root beer float.

[Wildiris]

Back in the day, my mother forbid my brothers and I to have soda. In DH's house soda was a staple drink. My kids do not drink soda, and they drink juice on rare occasions. Juice can be as detrimental to health as soda. It is all sugar in high quantities.

[Pawz4me]

Oldest DS never drinks it.

 

Youngest DS has a small can (8 oz.) anywhere from a couple of times a week to once a day.  He takes it by spells.  I voted once a day for him, though, because for your poll it seemed the best fit. I'd rather make it seem like he drinks a little more than he does than less.

 

Mostly at our house soda isn't treated as a good/bad thing.  It's just there like water, iced tea, coffee, etc.  They can choose it or not.  I'd say mostly they choose other things.

[blondeviolin]

My kids can't finish a full soda. They may sneak a sip of mine here or there (grrrr), but they don't drink a full soda everyday. They are happy with milk or water.

[ILiveInFlipFlops]

I was surprised to read a stat that said 90% of American children (presumably including teens) drink at least one soda per day. I did not think it was quite that common. Do you find this stat probable? Is it true for your children?

 

My kids very rarely drink anything but water. We never gave them juice or soda as kids, and when they were old enough to request the occasional juice or soda as a treat and we would have allowed it, they just didn't want it. They actually dislike soda entirely, and they'll sometimes order juice in a restaurant and then only drink a third of it because it's too sweet for them. Lemonade is the only exception--they love lemonade, but again, it's a rare treat. They get enough sugar in other ways!

 

I, on the other hand, would drink Coke with every meal if I could! Only Coke though, and I wasn't really raised that way. We were a water/cranberry juice-only family, except on special occasions. DH was a big believer that juice was good for you (even those crummy "juice beverages" that you can get for 99 cents at the grocery store!) and drank lots of OJ daily until he finally started realizing how much sugar he was consuming that way. Then he stopped. As a kid, he probably would have been part of that "one soda per day" statistic. His mother still always has soda in the house, though now it's diet soda. 

 

As to whether I find it believable? It's very hard for me to say, because I run with a crunchy crowd, so they're not drinking much soda in general, and they're especially not giving it to their kids. If I were to think about the kids I know through DH's family though...yeah, I could see it being true there. 

[LucyStoner]

Uh, my kids aren't big soda drinkers and never ask for it. Sometimes I give them small amounts of caffeinated root beer because it seems to have a positive impact on attention matters.

 

But I absolutely believe the statistic. Something like 1/4 to 1/3 of all meals eaten by children in the states are eaten in a car and come from fast food places. The number one beverage there sold

to kids is a soda or soda equivalent (minute maid lemonade, Hi C orange drink.)

 

This is a class and demographics issue as well. As a college educated homeschooler in an affluent area, most kids my sons socialize with are also not drinking soda on the daily. So I can say this stat is off if I am only considering my bubble. My niece and nephew, from a very low income family and attending a low income school consume a lot of soda themselves and most

of their friends and neighbors do too. Getting them to drink water and milk instead of soda wasn't an easy thing to do, at all. The number makes sense for the whole.

[Catwoman]

My ds can have it whenever he likes, but he rarely drinks soda at home. He does have soda whenever we go out to eat, though.

[Guest]

My kids mostly have it if we go out to eat at a restaurant.  They are only allowed to have non-caffeinated soda.  They usually will pick Sprite or Root Beer when we go out to eat, or chocolate milk.

 

The only other time they get soda is if they are sick and we give them some Sprite or 7-up.

[sassenach]

I also grew up with soda always in the house. We never buy it. My teen probably drinks several a week. She works and makes a lot of her own food choices outside of our home. I generally think she eats very poorly, but I cant control that.

 

My kids get to have it occasionally- at parties and such. Probably less than once a month.

[3in9th]

My kids have rarely had it. One of my DDs won't drink it at all; she doesn't like the fizz. Once a month to six times a year we'll go out to a restaurant and they'll have one. Once a month to six times a year, we'll actually buy some at the grocery store (though usually because it's someone's birthday.)

 

FWIW, I tend to think that homeschoolers and those on WTM forums are atypical. It seems to me that we tend to be much more well-informed, health conscious, and crunchy.

[mom2att]

My youngest would drink it daily if I would let him and if we kept it in the house. He has maybe one or two a week, when we go out to lunch or dinner. My older boy always drinks water, he doesn't like soda. My oldest drinks sweet tea, which is probably almost as bad as soda, or water.

 

Me? I wish there was a Dr. Pepper diet, where I could just subsist on regular Dr. Pepper with chewy ice all day and maintain a nice, slim figure. But since that's not happening I try to only have 1 or 2 a week.  I once went a whole year without soda, and you know how people say when they go without it for a long time it just doesn't taste good anymore? It's not true. It was better than ever!

[scoutingmom]

My kids have it at restaurants (generally fast food) ....   because if they have a milk (or juice) it is so small and it is gone before they are done and they are still thirsty.   At a real restaurant they would have water.   

[JenneinCA]

My 16 year old and 10 year year old won't drink anything wish fizz. They never drink soda.

 

My 14 year old would happily drink soda everyday but we don't have it in the house very often.

[Hypatia.]

My kids will get a soda if we are at a restaurant or drive-thru, so maybe about once a month. I was drinking several sodas a day by the time I was a teen (and still struggle with it), I don't want that to be the case for them.

 

It's not something forbidden, it's just not a daily drink. At meals we drink water, sometimes I'll have iced tea.

[regentrude]

My DS will get a soda if we are at a restaurant or at a party. We do not have soda in the home and never did.

[73349]

DS doesn't like fizzy drinks, and I avoid giving him food coloring. He does have juice a few times a week.

 

DH doesn't like soda, but he does like sparkling grape juice. His parents kept soda and Kool-Aid in the house; he drank the Kool-Aid.

 

I like certain flavors of soda. I probably drink one or two a month. I grew up drinking Coke once a week at a fast-food restaurant, or less.

[Guest]

This is a class and demographics issue as well. As a college educated homeschooler in an affluent area, most kids my sons socialize with are also not drinking soda on the daily. So I can say this stat is off if I am only considering my bubble. My niece and nephew, from a very low income family and attending a low income school consume a lot of soda themselves and most

of their friends and neighbors do too. Getting them to drink water and milk instead of soda wasn't an easy thing to do, at all. The number makes sense for the whole.

It does...and yes, it is a class and demographics issue.

[LucyStoner]

Yeah, if I wanted to cause a sensation at the homeschool center I could do so by merely picking my kids up lunch at Wendy's. I'm pretty crunchy and have been shopping at natural food stores before Whole Foods was even a thing but I get a kick out of how reactive some of these families totally ensconced on their bubble are.

[Guest]

Me? I wish there was a Dr. Pepper diet, where I could just subsist on regular Dr. Pepper with chewy ice all day and maintain a nice, slim figure. But since that's not happening I try to only have 1 or 2 a week. I once went a whole year without soda, and you know how people say when they go without it for a long time it just doesn't taste good anymore? It's not true. It was better than ever!

Interesting. I do put myself with those who lost the taste for it after abstaining. I haven't had a "cola" type of soda in several years. When I've had a sip, say, off a kid's cup at a restaurant, I think it tastes awful. I have had fruit-based sparkling water sodas more recently, though. I do think they taste good, but I can't take the belching and bloating anymore, so I don't drink soda at all really.

[SKL]

I don't drink it and I don't buy it.  But once in a while, other people give it to my kids.

 

When I was a young kid, we used to get about 8 oz. of pop every Friday night.  :)  As a teen and young adult, I drank it daily.

[SKL]

Yeah, it has completely lost its charm for me.  :P  It also makes me very burpy.  Not worth it.

[MiMi 4under3]

I voted 'infrequently.'

 

My kids are allowed only one at a party if soda is being offered.

When we go to a sit-down restaurant, they are given the choice of a fountain drink or dessert, but not both.

[JustEm]

My children get either soda or juice once a week at their grandparents house. They get to pick which they want and it always changes depending on what they're in the mood for. The rest of the week they get water. On special occasions other than that once a week they may be allowed juice or soda, like yesterday when I met the boardies, but they will not get soda or juice on Sunday when they normally would. Holidays they are also allowed soda or juice.

[Dmmetler]

DD will get lemonade or fruit punch or sprite when we go out to eat (or often a mix of them if the restaurant has it set up where you can get your own fountain drinks). That's about it.

[catz]

We rarely to never have soda at home.  Maybe when we're entertaining.  So my 10 and 14 year old maybe average 1-2 a week when we're eating out.  My 10 year old often elects not to get soda even when we're out.  They almost never had soda when they were younger than about 8.

[Carrie12345]

I voted infrequently for my younger kids, but probably once a day for my teen.  I don't know his true soda consumption, but I know his father stocks it in his home, and ds always asks me to pick some up.  (I do. Infrequently.)

 

They also eat candy bars. Infrequently.  ;)

 

(They're lucky if I buy juice a couple of times a year.)

[BigMamaBird]

We let our younger children have pop only when we go out to eat at a sit down place, which is maybe once a month at the most.  Usually when we have Book-It certificates to use.

[Upward Journey]

I don't like juice or soda, so I just don't ever think to buy it.  I'm sure if I did, my kids would happily drink it every day ;)

 

My kids are stuck with water and the occasional glass of milk.  We also drink tea, coffee & cocoa.

[ILiveInFlipFlops]

Me? I wish there was a Dr. Pepper diet, where I could just subsist on regular Dr. Pepper with chewy ice all day and maintain a nice, slim figure. But since that's not happening I try to only have 1 or 2 a week.  I once went a whole year without soda, and you know how people say when they go without it for a long time it just doesn't taste good anymore? It's not true. It was better than ever!

 

Oh, this is me with regular Coke. Even down to going without for so long and then expecting not to like it the first time I had it. It was like being reunited with a long-lost love. I was so upset!

[Sherry in OH]

One of mine has never had soda. He doesn't like sweet drinks.  He drinks water or milk.  The other does like sweet drinks.  He has had soda once or twice at parties.   

[Jane in NC]

My adult son usually drinks water but might have an occasional root beer or ginger ale.  Like less than one a week occasional.

 

But what I really wanted to note is that in the American South, many people of all ages may not drink soda daily but are drinking huge amounts of sweetened iced tea.  I do not and thus have not analyzed it to determine a sugar comparison with soda.  But I suspect the sugar amounts are similar.

[LucyStoner]

My adult son usually drinks water but might have an occasional root beer or ginger ale. Like less than one a week occasional.

 

But what I really wanted to note is that in the American South, many people of all ages may not drink soda daily but are drinking huge amounts of sweetened iced tea. I do not and thus have not analyzed it to determine a sugar comparison with soda. But I suspect the sugar amounts are similar.

Or higher. Some of the sweet tea I have sampled tastes like the syrup they mix with carbonated water to make soda.

 

And soda (or "pop") consumption is also higher than average in many southern states.

[HRAAB]

I voted infrequently.  Occasionally during the summer (camping or picnic) we will have root beer or for a birthday party.  Other than that, it is never in the house.  My youngest dislikes anything carbonated.

[go_go_gadget]

Once a month, maybe--or every couple of months--at restaurants, and I'm including lemonade in that. We've never had it in the house, and don't have juice or milk. 

[Tammi K]

Several of my kids don't drink it at all. The two youngest still at home might have it once or twice a week if we are out and about

 

I don't usually buy soda to drink at home but we were having pizza on Tuesday and I grabbed two 2-liter bottles of ginger ale - a favorite for the times we do have soda. It's Friday and both bottles were still sealed. Everyone knew it was there but no one chose to have any.

 

We almost always have a pitcher of lemonade made as well. But, generally the kids prefer water.

[Ellie]

Someone's children are drinking my children's soda, apparently. :laugh:

[Guest]

My kids will have a watered down HI-C or Lemonade, occasionally orange soda, when we go to a restaurant (once every few months). They drink nothing but water and a little milk at home.

 

My husband and I consume a little soda - I drink a diet a day and he drinks a regular Pepsi, but this isn't something our kids do and not something we will encourage. I think access makes a difference - my children aren't being sent with lunches or eating out of vending machines or at restaurants, and so their chances to come across or purchase soda is much lower than, say, my nieces who go to public school and eat school lunch. Family culture and region makes a difference, too.

[T'smom]

I voted infrequently for my young kids- I don't have big kids. But I was drinking Pepsi daily until the new year. Several a day actually. I stopped as a New Years resolution and haven't had any since. You would think I would lose some weight based on cutting out 3-4 glasses/day but I have not lost an ounce. Not one ounce. And I know that if I drink it again, it will be like sweet nectar of the gods and I will probably gain weight!

[AndyJoy]

It seems probable to me given my experiences. I hung out with a pretty whole-foods crunchy crowd in CA but I discovered several of the ones I thought were die-hard let their 3-6 year-olds have Sprite or rootbeer at restaurants. I am not in that crowd (too many Oreos and Kraft Mac & Cheese boxes here) but we are adamant about no soda for little kids. We will reevaluate at double digits. I hope my kids never develop a taste for it!

 

We also recently went to a McDonald's birthday party and several people were really surprised to find that my 5-year-old never has soda.

[momacacia]

I'm in my early 40s and I remember seeing a doctor once who asked me a few years ago about my own soda consumption growing up. She was really surprised to hear that I grew up without any soda in the house and not really even drinking/discovering it (the occasional root beer) until my 20s while on a mission trip. I guess even back in my day it was more common to have in the home. ???

[Peaceful Isle]

I quit soda a while back, and haven't looked back. My dh will have at least one can a day. My kids only get itif we go out to eat (rare) ,if we have company over, or we are having a food fellowship at the church. So maybe once a month for my kids.

They used to drink more when I drank it, but now that I have quit, they don't.

 

 

[Guest]

I voted infrequently for my young kids- I don't have big kids. But I was drinking Pepsi daily until the new year. Several a day actually. I stopped as a New Years resolution and haven't had any since. You would think I would lose some weight based on cutting out 3-4 glasses/day but I have not lost an ounce. Not one ounce. And I know that if I drink it again, it will be like sweet nectar of the gods and I will probably gain weight!

That is surprising. Anecdotally, my BIL lost something like 40lbs. When he quit drinking soda daily - and that was the only change he claimed to make. (He did resume drinking it, though, and also regained weight.)

[Lara in Colo]

We have soda one night a week (hot dog and movie night) and sometimes there might be another occasion for soda (eating out or something that rarely happens)  otherwise we drink unsweetened tea, water or milk

[Guest]

I'm in my early 40s and I remember seeing a doctor once who asked me a few years ago about my own soda consumption growing up. She was really surprised to hear that I grew up without any soda in the house and not really even drinking/discovering it (the occasional root beer) until my 20s while on a mission trip. I guess even back in my day it was more common to have in the home. ???

I am in my 40s too. We had it very rarely; special occasions. We also ate out very rarely, maybe twice a year. However, those were mostly financial decisions. We did have Kool-Aid (shudder) and sweet tea almost all the time. Water as a beverage was viewed as very strange.

[NicksMama-Zack's Mama Too]

Our family always orders water with lemon when we eat at restaurants.We are cheap. I only drink soda as a mixer. .

 

My kids prefer iced-tea as a treat. They will have a soda with pizza or burgers. We drink a fair amount of water.

 

I grew up with soda as a treat and unsweetened sun tea as a staple.

 

My best friend considers soda a staple. Her hubby drinks a 20 oz. Coke with his breakfast. Her kids drink it all day long. It's there family culture. The sugar they consume floors me!

[Mergath]

I put "never," although I think dd has had it twice in her life, both times as part of a root beer float.  But apart from those two times, she's not allowed to drink soda and doesn't drink it.  We don't even really buy juice, unless dd is sick and we need to coax some extra fluids into her.  She drinks water, milk, or unsweetened tea most of the time.  I used to drink the occasional pop, but now it's pretty rare.  Dh used to drink it heavily, but he's cut back to a pop once every two or three days.

[LucyStoner]

This whole thread reminds me I need to call my nephew's dentist. A look in my sons' mouths compared to my nephew and niece will tell you exactly why sugary drinks are harmful.

[Guest]

This whole thread reminds me I need to call my nephews dentist. A look in my sons' mouths compared to my nephew and niece will tell you exactly why sugary drinks are harmful.

Well, this is one reason it is on my mind. It does not *seem* to me that much public attention is given to the dental consequences of drinking a lot of sugar. My mother has extremely severe decay and periodontal disease; it is a very major motivator to me to use less sugar myself.

 

Eta: typo

[LaxMom]

When I was growing up, it was a party drink. My husband grew up with soda being a staple.

 

We don't keep soda in the house and my kids generally only have real sugar, less crud sodas when they do have one, every few months or so. They drink water. Sometimes milk. Occasionally (real orange) juice or squeezed lemonade. Once in a while, unsweetened iced tea.