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For any well-run workplace wellness program, helping employees consider their diet — and finding ways to make healthy choices easier to make — is a key goal. One obvious area (as we have reported here, here, and here) is reducing sugar intake, particularly through soda.

Now the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports through its National Center for Health Statistics that much more work needs to be done.

Their report, titled “Sugar-sweetened Beverage Consumption Among U.S. Adults, 2011–2014”  states: “Among U.S. adults aged 20 and over, 53.6% of men and 45.1% of women consumed at least one sugar-sweetened beverage on a given day in 2011–2014. Overall, U.S. adults consumed an average 145 kcal from sugar-sweetened beverages, and 6.5% of their daily energy intake came from sugar-sweetened beverages.”

Among the troubling facts — and contrary to what one might think given the increasing awareness around the dangers of sugar — is that the data are worse for young adults than for older adults.

The report: “Among both men and women, consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages decreased with increasing age, and calories consumed from sugar-sweetened beverages were almost triple among young adults compared with older adults. ”

The data were also broken out by sex and race:

• “Men consumed an average 179 kilocalories (kcal) from sugar-sweetened beverages, which contributed 6.9% of total daily caloric intake. Women consumed an average 113 kcal from sugar-sweetened beverages, which contributed 6.1% of total caloric intake.”
• “Among men, sugar-sweetened beverage intake was highest among both non-Hispanic black and Hispanic men, followed by non-Hispanic white and non-Hispanic Asian men. For women, sugar- sweetened beverage intake was highest among non-Hispanic black, followed by Hispanic, non-Hispanic white, and non-Hispanic Asian women.”

Indeed, as MedPage reports: “There were significant differences in sugary drink use by race. Black and Hispanic men led all groups with 213 and 215 daily calories, respectively. On average, sugary drinks accounted for about 9% of daily calories in those two groups. For many that number is likely far higher — one quarter of males reported drinking two or more such drinks every day.”