Diet Soda Consumption Is Way Up

Are you a lover of Diet Coke? Most likely, yes — new stats show that diet soda consumption in America has continued to rise over the past decade. 

The CDC now says that 20 percent of the population drinks diet soda; while that may seem small — after all, that means 80 percent are not drinking diet soda — the numbers are steadily rising. In 2000, only 13 percent of males were drinking diet soda; in 2010, that number rose to 19 percent. For females, that number rose from 17.8 percent in 2000 to 21 percent in 2010. And when the numbers are broken down by race, they show that 27 percent of white adults drink diet sodas compared to 10 percent of black adults and 14 percent of Hispanic adults. (And kids' consumption is a whole different story.)

And, perhaps unsurprisingly, regular soda consumption is dropping. In 2008, people consumed 91 calories per day from regular sodas, down from 150 calories per day in 2000. But overall, the number of calories consumed from all sugary drinks — including diet — is large. Men consume 178 calories per day from all sugary drinks; women consume 103 calories. Maybe Mayor Bloomberg should have re-thought this whole soda ban to include diet drinks.