The average 12 oz soda contains about the equivalent 10 tsps of sugar (technically speaking most sodas are made with corn syrup, which is essentially the same). Assuming you drink one soda a day, 365 days a year, you would consume 3650 tsps or approximately 32 lbs of sugar (113.4 tsps/lb) just in terms of soda. The sodas that are sold today usually come in 20 oz sizes (the ones typically sold in vending machines -- these state that they have 2.5 servings which is total BS. Everyone I know drinks those as one serving. I used to drink at least one of these per day, perhaps more). But assuming I drank a 20 oz bottle per day (or 2.5 servings), the math would work out to about 54 lbs of sugar per year, just in soda.
Sugar is everywhere in food: most obviously in cakes, cookies, and candy, but also in bread, sauces and condiments, salty snacks, jellies and jams, batters, etc. I would estimate that the average american consumes about 100 - 120 lbs of sugar annually.
Looking at the 5 lb. bag of sugar on my kitchen counter and envisioning what 100 lbs of sugar would look like, its disgusting to think that we expect our bodies to process this and not become obese and/or get Diabetes.
***EDIT - I don't want to delete the above because it's informative....but according to the FDA the average American consumes between 140-200 pounds of sugar yearly....that equates to about 1/2 pound of sugar daily.
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