There may have finally been a breakthrough. Coke, Pepsi, and Dr. Pepper have all announced that they plan to work to reduce the number of calories Americans get from beverages by 20 percent in the next decade.
The announcement was made at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City. Soda makers are facing increasing amounts of pressure to do something as sugary drinks continue to contribute to rising obesity rates.
Though obesity rates are still going up, there’s no denying that the idea of being healthier is appealing to more and more people. The last several years have seen customers moving away from consuming soda.
Both Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc. have been pushing smaller beverage sizes and their respective bottled waters. It is estimated that between 2000 and 2024, the numbers of calories people got from drinks dropped by 12 percent.
Now the companies are hoping to make a more extreme change by pushing smaller sizes, bottled water, and diet beverages. Though these are all reasonable solutions to the problem of too many calories consumed through beverages, they aren’t without their own problems.
Smaller beverage containers will certainly limit the amount you consume – if you stick to just one. A friend of mine shared her frustration in trying to kick her Dr. Pepper habit. She has switched to drinking the smaller 8-ounce cans, instead of a 12-ounce. Unfortunately, she was drinking two of the smaller cans a day and drinking more soda than she had been with a regularly-sized can.
Though devoid of calories, diet soda isn’t exactly healthy. In fact, it’s been suggested that it can cause a variety of health problems.
That brings us to bottled water. Both PepsiCo and Coca-Cola have their own brands, and have recently expanded the brands to include flavored options. Water itself is great, and we could all stand to be better hydrated, though we could do without the waste of disposable plastic bottles.
It’s ultimately a matter of picking your poison. Consuming less soda, low-calorie beverages, or better yet, water is certainly a better option than blowing a good portion of your days’ worth of calories on a drink.
The fact that major beverage companies are stepping up to help reduce the amount of calories we consume through drinks is impressive.
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