Soft Drinks Now America’s Biggest Fat Factor

America has a drinking problem, or two, and at least one of them is not about alcohol. It’s about soft drinks. A Tufts University health researcher who studied data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999–2000, is convinced that soft drinks have replaced white bread as the number one source of calories for most Americans. This story in Science News reports on that study and another, published in the May issue of the Journal of Pediatrics, that found that U.S. children and teenagers consume, on average, about two cans of soda or fruit drink a day, providing as many calories as a whole meal. The story reports that in 1945, U.S. adults drank four times as many gallons of milk as of carbonated beverages, but by 1997, they drank two and half times as much soda and sweetened juice as they did milk. Read more.