"Is Soda Consumption Falling Flat?"
By Gabriella Shapiro
Article Summary
The Live Science health column staff writer, Sara G. Miller published the article, Is Soda Consumption Falling Flat?, on February 25th, 2016. The authors’ purpose of this article is to prove that soda consumption and sugar-sweetened beverages have decreased over the past six years in adults and decrease health risks. The research was based on multiple studies performed by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The study began in 2010, by collecting data through a two question telephone survey conducted over 23 states and the District of Columbia. The author concludes that the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages drank once daily, by adults, has decreased from 50.6% to 30.1%. The goal of this report, is for the percent to keep declining and making the public aware that one can of regular soda is about 8.8% of daily calories from added sugars, which is about the daily recommended value of 10% to be consumed in a day. Influencing adults to cut back on their consumption, can reduce the amount of people being diagnosed with obesity, Type 2 diabetes, and heart disease influenced by sugar-sweetened drinks.
Article Critique
The author of this article is a staff writer for Live Science, whose background includes a major in biology (Miller, 2016b), with no background in writing except for pure enjoyment. As a member of the writing staff, Miller focuses on the websites health column, which means Live Science would have sponsored and supported her research and writing skills. The information in this article comes from reports, studies, and scientific evidence, not performed by the author, but public information from a recently published (as of February 25, 2016), 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Both of these sources are credible, reliable, and well-known, but a bit misleading in the article. For example, the article states that the average calories from sugar should be 10%, while a regular can of soda is 8.8% of the daily recommended value. But what exactly does 8.8% sugar calories mean? According to a clinical nutritionist, and a nutrition director, most Americans are not going to take the time in a day to calculate how many sugar calories they should consume in a day, even know what sugar calories are (Miller, 2016a). It would be much easier if the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans provided calorie counts as well. But the author of the article deserves credit for doing her research and stating the amount of calories and sugar that are in a regular can of soda. This information is helpful for the other half of this article, which states that soda consumption has dropped around 20% over the years. Except, the surveys conducted to produce these results, are not exactly the same. The first survey asked how many soda and sugar-sweetened drinks the participant drank in a day, and the second asked how often the participant drank these drinks. As stated by the author, this may have caused the numbers in the first survey to be higher, and curving the second survey percentages lower based off of unknown exact drink and calorie consumption per day. Overall the author was very thorough and detailed in her research.
Citation & Reference
Miller, S. (2016, January 7). The Big Picture: What the New Diet Guidelines Mean for You. Retrieved from: http://www.livescience.com/53300-new-diet-guidelines-big-picture.html
Miller, S. (2016, February 25). Author Bio. Retrieved from:
http://www.livescience.com/53846 -soda-consumption-america.html