Current mood:
thirsty
The other day my nephew was working a story problem whichrequired him to know how many ounces are in a gallon. I told him therewere 64 ounces in a gallon. Now before I get a tidal wave of emailsthat tell me how half right I am, let me tell you what happened next.The answer I gave him bugged me so I Googled it. There are 128 ouncesin a gallon. The answer I gave him equaled a half gallon. So there are32 ounces in a quart, 16 in a pint, 8 in a cup. So that got me a-thinking', about how many ounces were in a can of soda. Upon opening the refrigerator I learned thatthere are 12, one and a half cups. I remember that when I was a kid Icouldn't drink an entire can of soda and I would often splita soda with my little brother. As a kid, a soda was quite a luxury sowe cherished our Shastas. But that was then when cute cartoons told us that Shasta tasted good. Nowdays, after the cola wars taught us that we didn't drink soda for the taste but rather because all of the popular kids are doing it,people drink gallons of soda a day.
A Refreshing Can of Soda
First let me start by saying, the most recent soda pop data isfrom 2006 so all or my calculations are based on 2006 numbers. Withthat out of the way; The top selling soda brands in the U.S. are, inorder: Coke Classic ~ 1.8 Billion Cases
Pepsi-Cola ~ 1.1 Billion Cases
Diet-Coke ~ 1.0 Billion Cases
Mountain Dew ~ 650 Million Cases
Diet Pepsi ~ 610 Million Cases
Even though Pepsi has 3 in the top 5, Coke has 43% of the market share beating out Pepsi's 31%, according to Beverage Digest. Nowhere's where it get's fun. According to the Beverage digest report, in 2006, Coke produced 1.76 Billion (with a"B") cases of Coke Classic.
Now here's a story problem for you.
Based in the recommended 12 ounce can serving size, what's soda doing to our nutrition? Once I realized that soda comes in 12 ounce cans, I realized that the nutritional information available on Coke's and Pepsi's websites is calculated based on 8 ounce servings, so I used a little math to provide comparable statistics between the sodas. And then I Compared to reality.
..> ..> ..>..>..>..>..>..>..>..>| 12 Ounce Can | Calories | Sodium | Sugar |
| Coke Classic | 140 | 50 | 39 |
| Pepsi- Cola | 150 | 30 | 41 |
| Diet- Coke | N/A | 45 | N/A |
| Mountain Dew | 170 | 65 | 46 |
| Diet Pepsi | N/A | 35 | N/A |
http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/mail/goodanswer/soft_drink_nutrition.pdf
http://www.pepsiproductfacts.com/infobycategory.php
To put the calories in perspective, it takes me 15 minutes on the treadmill going 3.3 miles per hour to burn 150 calories. To put the sodium (salt) into perspective a teaspoon of salt is just under five grams (4.75) 45 grams of salt, the average of the five sodas, is just over 3 (3.16) tablespoons, the big spoon. For the non-diet drinks the average sugar in the can is 42 grams almost 3 tablespoons (2.95). Like the song says, "A spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down." I guess it takes three spoons of sugar to choke down three and a third tablespoons of salt.
A Real Drinking Problem
Now let's invite Dr. Reality to the conversation.(Dr. Reality like Dr. Pepper, is not a really doctor or for that matter, even a real person.) In reality we drink more than the fictional 8 ounces that the soda companies have on their websites, or even 12 ounces that come in a can. Dr. Reality tells us that usually weget 16 ounces or more soda when we get our greasy burgers. Add that up and we get a new chart.
..> ..> ..>..>..>..>..>>>..>..>..>| 16 Ounce | Calories | Sodium | Sugar |
| Coke Classic | 280 | 7.25 | 5.4795 |
| Pepsi-Cola | 300 | 4.215 | 5.7605 |
| Diet-Coke | N/A | 6.3225 | N/A |
| Mountain Dew | 340 | 9.1325 | 6.463 |
| Diet Pepsi | N/A | 4.9175 | N/A |
At 16 ounces we have more than a third of a cup of salt and sugar and all of the regular sodas. Diet Coke has 2/5 cups of salt and Diet Pepsi has 3/10 cups of salt. In all categories this is more salt than I would put on my fries! But you know that there are people who can't stop at just one.
Know When to Say When
For those who don't know when enough is enough, I've included a table that represents 32 ounces and 64 ounces. In the 64 ounce section I have begun measuring salt and sugar by the cup.
..> ..> ..>..>..>..>..>..>..>..>| 32 Ounce Calories | 32 Sodium Tablespoons | 32 Sugar Tablespoons | 64 | 64 Sodium CUPS | 64 Sugar CUPS | |
| Coke Classic | 560 | 14.05 | 10.959 | 1120 | 1.74 | 1.36 |
| Pepsi-Cola | 600 | 8.43 | 11.521 | 1200 | 1.04 | 1.43 |
| Diet-Coke | N/A | 12.645 | N/A | N/A | 1.57 | N/A |
| Mountain Dew | 680 | 18.265 | 12.926 | 1360 | 2.26 | 1.60 |
| Diet Pepsi | N/A | 9.835 | N/A | N/A | 1.22 | N/A |
One note that struck me as quite interesting is that in my homemade, made from scratch, lemon cake recipe, I use 3 eggs (just the yolks no whites—I know it's not healthy but it is moist.), a cup of flour, a tablespoon of baking powder, a teaspoon of salt, a splash of lemon extract and a single (1) cup of sugar. Drizzle some honey on the top when it's done or don't put anything on top and have it with your coffee. DO NOT have it with 64 ounces of Mountain Dew or you may be getting way too much sugar.
It's a National Crisis
According to Beverage Digest's Carbonated Soft Drink report in the year 2006 the soda companies produced over 10 Billion Gallons of soda. Now if we believe Arthur's Pools website,(when you think pools, think Arthur) the dimensions of an Olympic Sized swimming pool is approximately 164ft x 82ft and 6ft deep. So in the U.S. we had enough soda to fill Olympic sized swimming pools that could cover a 16.7 square mile surface area. That's as big as the entire town of Kirtland, Ohio. Now that's a lot of soda.
So let's look at the numbers as they calculate out. This is the last chart in this blog, I swear.
..> ..> ..>..>..>..>..>..>..>..>| 2006 Production of the top 5 brands | Calories | Sodium Tons | Sugar Tons | |
| Coke Classic | 4 | Over | 3.6 Million | 2.8 Million |
| Pepsi- Cola | 2.5 | Almost | 1.3 Million | 1.8 Million |
| Diet- Coke | 2.3 | N/A | 1.8 | N/A |
| Mountain Dew | 1.5 | Almost | 1.7 Million | 1.1 Million |
| Diet Pepsi | 1.3 | N/A | 847 Thousand | N/A |
I checked the population clock on the U.S. Government's Census website at 8:00PM EST on 2/21/08 and it said the US population was 303,484,161. That means that everyone in the U.S. consumes on average, 33 Gallons of soda a year. That comes down to 352 cans of soda a year or just under a can of soda a day per person.
Which leads me to two conclusions.
- Way too many of you are giving sodas to newborns!
- Somebody is drinking my share.
That's OK though. I'll just go back to splitting a can of soda with my little brother.
Nice very interesting study, where were you during the science fair?