There’s a question that’s been on my mind a lot over the last week.

Are beverage companies becoming the tobacco companies of this decade?

I live in a liberal state.  Minnesota is known for taking issues seriously.  When the lawsuits against Phillip Morris and the tobacco world started hitting the books, Minnesota was in the front pack of the charge.  “Smoke free” has been a mainstay in our public places for a long time.  Nowadays, when you run into someone here who smokes, it’s almost with embarrassment that they maintain this habit.  It’s become socially unacceptable to smoke.

And I wonder if this is where we’re heading with what we call “pop” here in Minnesota.    According to a major nutrition data source (NHANES, 2001-04), the average consumer gets more than 22 teaspoons of added sugar per day, totaling more than 350 calories.  The main source of this sugar?  Soft drinks and other carbonated beverages.  One 12-oz. can of soda has about 8 teaspoons of sugar.

With childhood obesity on everyone’s mind, especially First Lady Michelle Obama, fingers are being pointed at the pop manufacturing giants like Coke and Pepsi.  NPR has an interesting discussion on soda in schools.  Everyone is concerned about the calories pop contributes and the more nutritious beverages (think milk) that pop replaces in kids’ eating habits.

Adding to the nutrition concerns, beverage manufacturers have also taken a beating from the environmentalists.  Coke owns Dasani, Powerade, and Vitamin Water in addition to their soda brands, and Pepsi owns Aquafina, Gatorade, Lipton teas, Propel and SoBe Waters in addition to their pop lines.  At the end of the day, that’s a lot of plastic bottles, and environmentalists raise concern over the energy it takes to produce them, potential seeping of compounds from the plastic into the water, and all those bottles ending up in landfills.

So, can my musing be far from the truth?  Carbonated beverage companies are the new tobacco companies, aren’t they?

Visit www.nuval.com where most regular sodas score a 1, the lowest score possible.