year-olds, yet total milk consumption decreased by 36 percent, and was accompanied by a three-fold increase in the consumption of sweetened carbonated soft drinks and a two-fold consumption of fruit-flavored beverages (Cavadini et al., 2000; Huang and McCrory, 2005; Figure 2-4).

A recent study of more than 3,000 children and youth ages 2–18 years using NHANES 1999–2000 data found that sweetened beverages provided approximately 13 percent of adolescents’ total caloric intake and represented the single leading source of added sugars in adolescents’ diets (Murphy et al., 2005). The study also found that the consumption of carbonated soft drinks and sweetened fruit drinks increased and milk decreased in a step-wise direction as children aged (Murphy et al., 2005).

Diet carbonated soft drinks and water consumption have not been systematically evaluated in national consumption surveys for children and youth, although databases are available to assess nutrient availability per capita of beverages by nationally representative samples of U.S. household purchases. Understanding the beverage choices made by households is important to assess the contribution of caloric beverages to total calorie intake. A USDA analysis used the 1999 ACNielsen Homescan Consumer Panel, which tracked household purchases of beverages over an entire year, to assess the nutrient availability for nonalcoholic beverages consumed at home. The analysis reflected only the purchasing patterns of households and the total household availability of nutrients, and did not disaggregate the findings into intrahousehold differences (Capps et al., 2005). However,

FIGURE 2-4 Trends in milk consumption versus carbonated soft drinks and fruit-flavored beverage consumption in U.S. adolescents, ages 11–18 years, 1965 to 1996.

SOURCES: Cavadini et al. (2000); Huang and McCrory (2005).