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BY KERRY LEARY

You're watching multisource video news analysis from Newsy.

Thinking about that ice-cold, super-sweet beverage waiting for you in your fridge at home?
According to a new study, half of Americans drink sugary drinks every single day. That’s about 160 million people.

ABC has more.

“For men, they’re now having 15 percent of their calories from added sugar, which is a 40 percent increase from the early ‘80s.”

“And can they tell what’s to account for this increase?”

“Well probably just that there’s more processed food and more sugary foods out there so, what they definitely saw was that as the sugar intake went up, body mass index also went up. So, we have an obesity crisis on our hands and this could definitely be a big part of that problem.”

The study found that one in 20 guzzle the more than four cans of soda each day. For reference, there are about 10 packets of sugar in each can. Soda isn’t the only canned-creation at fault. Lemonades, sweetened waters and sports beverages share the blame.

And NPR reports-- there’s a particular group of people that’s particularly bad.

“The findings, gathered from interviews conducted between 2005 and 2008, show that Americans males are getting about 175 calories a day from the drinks, on average, compared with 94 for females. Teenagers drink the most of this stuff, as if you needed the CDC to tell you that. For boys, ages 12 to 19, the average number of calories consumed was 273, compared with 171 for girls in that age group.”

The obesity epidemic in the US is snagging a lot of headlines - with some one third of the country’s population weighing in as obese.
Big names like Michelle Obama, Shaq and J.Lo have joined the fight against it.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest has launched a campaign called, “Life’s Sweeter with Fewer Sugary Drinks,” which will seek to decrease the average consumption per person to three cans a week by the year 2020.

And New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has proposed barring food stamp users from buying sugary beverages with them, according to the New York Times. The proposal was rejected this week.

But the American Beverage Association argues-- sugary beverages are not to blame for health issues. It released a statement saying....

"Contrary to what may be implied by the introductory statement of this data brief that reaches back 30 years, sugar-sweetened beverages are not driving health issues like obesity and diabetes. In fact, recently published data from CDC researchers show that sugar-sweetened beverages play a declining role in the American diet while obesity is increasing.”

The study also found--low-income persons consume more sugary drinks in relation to their overall diet than those with higher income.
The Centers for Disease Control report released Wednesday is said to be the first to offer national statistics on the subject for adults and kids, according to MSNBC.

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