On Tuesday, the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans final report was released.  If you’re not familiar with these guidelines, they are updated every five years, and used to set policy around healthy eating.  In total, the full report is more than 1,000 pages.  Needless to say, I haven’t read it all yet, but in what my husband would call a “People Magazine browse,” I did find some interesting nuggets worth blogging about.

One area of the report that struck me right away is the number of calories we get from beverages.  Here’s the breakdown:

The AVERAGE ADULT (19+) gets 394 calories a day from beverages:

• 114 from soda
• 108 from alcohol (someone is getting my share on most days!)
• 80 from fluid milk
• 67 from 100% fruit juice and juice drinks
• 26 from coffee and tea

KIDS aged 2-18 get 400 calories a day from beverages:

• 162 from milk
• 121 from soda
• 112 from 100% fruit juices and fruit drinks
• In kids age 14-18, soda, sports and energy drinks are the highest contributor of calories.

Intriguing data isn’t it.  Growing up, I remember drinking milk with every meal, getting a cold glass of water when I was hot from running around with my friends all day in the summer, and having lemonade or pop (remember, I’m from the Midwest) as a treat, maybe once a month.  But clearly, these numbers tell a different story.  Skim milk has 90 calories in a cup.  With the total ranging from 80-162 calories a day from milk, no one – adults nor kids – are getting enough milk and with it the calcium and vitamin D we all need.  Kids and adults alike are getting a hit of calories from pop – and this is straight sugar.  If adults quit drinking fully sugar-loaded pops, they could save more than 41,000 calories in a year.  That’s 12 pounds of weight.  For kids, the total is more than 44,000 calories in a year, or almost 13 pounds of weight.

Bottom line?  We all need to rethink our drinks.

Visit NuVal.com to find the scores of your usual beverages.