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Margot Sanger-Katz reports in the NYT that soda consumption is experiencing a serious and sustained decline as sales of full-calorie soda in the United States have plummeted by more than 25 percent over the past twenty years. Nearly two-thirds of Americans say they are actively trying to avoid the drinks that have been a mainstay of American culture and bottled water is now on track to overtake soda as the largest beverage category in two years. The changing patterns of soda drinking appear to come thanks, in part, to a loud campaign to eradicate sodas. School cafeterias and vending machines no longer contain regular sodas. Many workplaces and government offices have similarly prohibited their sale.
For many public health advocates, soda has become the new tobacco — a toxic product to be banned, taxed and stigmatized. "There will always be soda, but I think the era of it being acceptable for kids to drink soda all day long is passing, slowly," says Marion Nestle. "In some socioeconomic groups, it's over." Soda represents nearly 25% of the U.S. beverage market and its massive scale have guaranteed profit margins for decades. Historically, beverage preferences are set in adolescence, the first time that most people begin choosing and buying a favorite brand. But the declines in soda drinking appear to be sharpest among young Americans. "Kids these days are growing up with all of these other options, and there are some parents who say, 'I really want my kids to drink juice or a bottled water,' " says Gary A. Hemphill. "If kids grow up without carbonated soft drinks, the likelihood that they are going to grow up and, when they are 35, start drinking is very low."
(Score: 4, Informative) by VLM on Sunday October 04 2015, @04:26PM
some quick research shows fruits are generally a mix of all three.
Much like table salt is a compound of sodium and chlorine, sucrose IS glucose and fructose in an exact 1:1 ratio. So chop a sucrose molecule in half in your stomach wall and you get one glucose and one fructose. Cane sugar is 100% sucrose aka exactly 50:50 glucose/fructose.
I don't know why biochemically speaking plants like to stockpile excess sugars in sucrose form, maybe its just less reactive or some random thing. Its just "what plants do". You're kinda stacking two things in the place of one, and its a bigger less reactive molecule...
Glucose is cool, it drops right into the citric acid cycle to generate ATP. Right from your gut to every cell in your body, more or less, without much in between.
Fructose is a good swift kick in the liver and makes life rather hard on that organ. It goes to a considerable effort to crack it into something useful to the body, the end results are eventually in the fatty acid / triglycerides path and into the glucose cycle. There's a peculiar cirrhosis of the liver that can develop from too much fructose intake.
Its possible to shove excess glucose into the triglycerides path, but fructose automatically dumps it in the path as part of normal metabolism. So if consumed in excess its probably not terribly good for weight loss or cardiovascular health.
Fructose does have one cool feature which is if your guts are ravaged out already and you've got diabetes or pre-diabetes then fructose tastes super sweet and has a low glycemic index, so after your guts are messed up, its probably the "best" sweetener, yet before your guts are broken its probably the worst sweetener, which is kind of weird but true symmetry.