WASHINGTON, November 15 (RIA Novosti) - American adults get almost as many calories from alcohol as they do from sugary soft drinks, according to a study published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a US government health agency.
With so many recent obesity-fighting campaigns in the United States focused squarely on the consequences of soda intake, like the 16-ounce (0.47 liter) soda ban in New York City, Americans who drink booze may be surprised to learn that, on average, they’re getting almost 100 calories a day from alcohol.
In contrast, the average American drinks one soft drink a day, which can contain about 140 calories.
“We’ve been focusing on sugar-sweetened beverages. This is something new,” Cynthia Ogden, an epidemiologist with the CDC, told the Associated Press (AP).
According to the CDC, the new findings deserve attention because, like soda, alcohol comes with few nutrients and a lot of empty calories.
The study also found that younger men, aged 20-39, consumed 175 calories from alcoholic beverages—the most of any age or gender group.
Older women, aged 40-59, imbibed the least calories from booze, 33 calories.
The study interviewed more than 11,000 American adults from 2007 to 2010 and asked them to recount the number of drinks they had over a 24-hour period. The research discovered that on any given day, about one-third of men and one-fifth of women consumed calories from beer, wine or liquor.
Averaged out, an adult male consumes 150 calories from alcohol each day, which is five calories more than a can of Budweiser beer. As a reference, a 12-ounce (0.35 liter) can of Coca-Cola has 140 calories.
Women, on average, drink about 50 calories from alcohol a day, which the AP calculated to be roughly half-a-glass of wine.
An average bottle of red wine contains 600 calories.
