A bottle of co*ke every day = way too much sugar (2024)

Coca Cola.jpg

Like most things, sugar in moderation is fine. But the average American consumes way more sugar than any health organization recommends. (Bloomberg photo by Chris Ratcliffe)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- If you're one of the many Americans who consume the equivalent of one 20-ounce bottle of co*ke every day, you're already taking in more added sugar than is recommended for you.

That's before you add any sugar to your morning coffee, take a bite of that mid-morning muffin or sip on an after-lunch latte.

That's the point Assemblyman Matthew Titone is making in his push to not only label beverages with high amounts of sugar but to ban the sales of said beverages to minors.

To fit his proposal into context, here are some facts about sugar, the average American and what sugar does to our bodies.

• There are 65 grams of sugar in a 20-oz bottle of Coca-Cola. That's about 16 teaspoons of sugar, which is two and a half times the recommended amount of daily sugar for a female adult and almost twice as much as the daily recommended for a male adult.
• The American Heart Association recommends a maximum of six teaspoons per day for women -- 24 grams-- and nine teaspoons for men -- 36 grams.
• The average adult American consumes 22 teaspoons of sugar -- 88 grams -- every day and the average child has 32 teaspoons -- 128 grams -- per day.
• The World Health Organization says people should get no more than 5 percent of their daily calories from sugar. For a 2,000 calorie diet, that's 100 calories from sugar.
• National Institutes of Health says that sugar-sweetened beverages like soda, sports drinks and energy drinks are the leading source -- about 33 percent -- of added sugar in American diets.
• Consuming added sugar increases the risk of tooth decay and unhealthy weight gain, which can lead to obesity, heart disease and diabetes.
• At the dawning of our country in 1776, the average American consumed 4 pounds of sugar annually. In 2015, the average American consumes about 130 pounds every year.