Diet soda consumption increases with age and as income rises, with seniors and those making $75,000 or more annually being the most likely to consume it. Americans living in the East and those with high incomes are the most likely to shun soda altogether. Americans in general prefer regular soda to diet -- 32% vs. 24%. But, the plurality (43%) say they don't drink soda at all.
These data, from Gallup's annual Consumption Habits survey, confirm the broad soda consumption finding in a July 2012 poll, in which about half of Americans reported drinking at least one glass of soda per day.
Researchers have long studied the link between regular soda consumption and obesity, and more recently are exploring the connection between diet soda and weight gain -- although there is no clear consensus yet on that front. It appears that increased awareness of the weight-gain issues associated with soda may be contributing to declining sales. Coke in particular just launched an ad campaign promoting its diet soda products, defending its use of the sugar-free sweetener aspartame.
Overweight Americans More Likely to Drink Soda in General
Americans who say they are overweight are more likely to drink soda in general than are those who describe themselves as being "about right" in their weight. However, 31% of the overweight and those who say they are about right say they drink regular soda most often. Thus the difference in soda consumption between these groups comes in the percentage drinking mostly diet soda -- 32% of overweight Americans say they drink it compared with 19% of those whose weight is about right.
Bottom Line
More than half of Americans drink soda -- and regular soda edges out diet among those who consume these beverages. Regular soda contains a lot of calories and sugar, which can have negative health implications. Increased awareness of this among government officials and consumers is apparent in efforts to remove soda machines from school lunchrooms, to limit the size of beverages that restaurants can serve, and in the decreasing market share for soda compared with bottled water and other beverages.
That more than three in 10 Americans drink regular soda likely isn't helping with the nation's obesity epidemic. But, it appears that regular soda is not the only problem when it comes to weight gain. Overweight Americans are just as likely as those of a healthy weight to drink regular soda -- it is diet soda that the overweight are much more likely to drink. It is possible that overweight Americans have become more aware of regular soda's high caloric level and could have disproportionately shifted to diet soda, making the exact relationship between consuming soda -- regular or diet -- and being overweight hard to decipher.
