Soda's Salvation

COEUR d'ALENE - Shawna Eversole has an addiction. She admits it. She can't go without her daily fix.

Soda Pop.

Preferably, the 32-ouncer, Pepsi or Mountain Dew will do.

"Oh yes, I drink pop all day long," the Coeur d'Alene woman said.

Eversole stopped at the Texaco gas station and convenience store on Northwest Boulevard on Thursday afternoon to pick up the 99 cent special from the fountain machine.

She likes that better than bottled or canned pop because of the carbonation. The taste, the caffeine, are simply a must have some days.

Well, pretty much every day.

"You bet," she said, laughing.

And damn the reports that say the stuff is no good for you. Somewhere, there's a report about everything you could eat or drink and it will somehow be bad for you.

"Too much of anything is bad for you," Eversole said. "They try to outlaw everything. I don't know what they're going to outlaw next."

People like their pop.

The Big Gulp is proof. Introduced in 1980, ranging from 20-ounces to 64, it's been a best-seller for 7-Eleven stores year after year after year.

How much do we drink? Hard to pin down exactly, but rest assured, it's a lot.

One report said your average American drinks 51 gallons of pop per year. Soda pop reportedly accounts for more than 25 percent of all drinks consumed in the U.S. Some 15 billion gallons of pop are sold each year.

These days, any convenience store offers fountain machines with 16, 32 and 48 ounces the primary choices. Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Wild Cherry, Coke, Diet Coke, Orange, Mountain Dew, they're all available for a few quarters, dimes and nickels.

Come summer, take a look at the folks wandering near City Park. Many are carrying a massive soft drink, sucking on a drink, sending sugar and caffeine into their system.

Heck, even in the midst of winter, folks won't surrender their soda.

The pro-pop population says it's tough to beat the combination of taste, the boost from the caffeine and sugar, and the price. How can you not buy something that's $1.19 for 44 ounces?

Al Larson was picking up a 32-ounce drink Friday morning at a Sherman Avenue convenience store.

Some start their day with pots of coffee, he said, but he prefers a cold pop with not too much ice.

"This just seems to get me going," he said. "And it's way cheaper than a coffee drink from a stand," he added.

He has heard reports soda is bad for his health, that studies find it causes obesity, that it's loaded with all sorts of chemicals you can't spell, pronounce or have a clue what they are.

But he doesn't worry too much.

"It seems like there's always a report something isn't good for you. Who knows?," he said.

What Larson does know is this: It tastes good.

"I like it," he said.

Studies show

Results of some recent studies indicate folks like Larson would be better off if they didn't.

A decades-long study involving more than 33,000 Americans has yielded the first clear proof that drinking sugary beverages interacts with genes that affect weight, amplifying a person's risk of obesity beyond what it would be from heredity alone.

This means that such drinks are especially harmful to people with genes that predispose them to weight gain. And most of us have at least some of these genes.

In addition, two other major experiments have found that giving children and teens calorie-free alternatives to the sugary drinks they usually consume leads to less weight gain.

Collectively, the results strongly suggest that sugary drinks cause people to pack on the pounds, independent of other unhealthy behavior such as overeating and getting too little exercise, scientists say.

That adds weight to the push for taxes, portion limits like the one just adopted in New York City, and other policies to curb consumption of soda, juice drinks and sports beverages sweetened with sugar.

Soda lovers do get some good news: Sugar-free drinks did not raise the risk of obesity in these studies.

"You may be able to fool the taste" and satisfy a sweet tooth without paying a price in weight, said an obesity researcher with no role in the studies, Rudy Leibel of Columbia University.

Calories

As criticism over sugary sodas intensifies, Coke, Pepsi and Dr Pepper are rolling out new vending machines that will put calorie counts right at your fingertips.

The counts will be on the buttons of the machines, which will also feature small posted messages reminding the thirsty that they can choose a low-calorie drink. The vending machines will launch in Chicago and San Antonio municipal buildings in 2013 before appearing nationally.

The move comes ahead of a new regulation that would require restaurant chains and vending machines to post calorie information as early as next year, although the timetable and specifics for complying with that requirement are still being worked out.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, for example, has proposed a less-stringent amendment that would allow vending machines to post the information on a poster on the side of the machine, notes Mike Jacobson, executive director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which advocates for food safety and nutrition.

The industry's announcement shows posting calories right on machines is perfectly feasible, he said.

"This would be an important step forward," Jacobson said. "Currently, people don't think about calories when they go up to a vending machine. Having the calories right on the button will help them make choices."

The other side

The American Beverage Association argues that sodas are taking too much of the blame for obesity.

"A calorie is a calorie, and what the data clearly show is that Americans are eating too much and taking in too many calories, period," says Maureen Storey, Ph.D., the ABA's senior vice president of science policy in a story on webmd.com

The ABA says the vast majority of studies supporting a soda-obesity link were done by researchers with strong anti-soda biases. Storey also says many of these biased or poorly done studies are covered by news media, while studies showing no link don't get the same attention.

"All too often, studies that don't show a relationship between sugar-sweetened beverages and obesity or other health concerns are not reported, while the ones that show even a very weak relationship are," she says.

Passionate

about pop

Texaco clerk Fred Rogers said the store sells a steady stream of soda, individually and with lunch specials. The 99 cent special for 32 ounces has been a hit.

Rogers doesn't like restricting the size of sodas someone can buy.

"It's personal choice. I don't think you should be able to limit how much soda someone can buy," he said.

Rogers, by the way, drinks sodas, too, but it's not for the taste.

"The only reason I drink it would be for caffeine," he said.

Crystal Traver took a break from work in downtown Coeur d'Alene Thursday afternoon and drove to Texaco to pick up a 32-ounce Mountain Dew.

"It gets me through the afternoon," she said.

Traver has heard about the studies and results of studies that indicate pop is no good, that large fountain drinks should be avoided.

Still, she drinks sodas. Has been for 15 years now. Pretty much daily, come afternoon, she needs a pick-me-up and says soda saves.

"They're horrible for you. I know this. I do it anyway," she said. "It gets me through my day."

She sips, rather than slurps. A 32-ouncer will last Traver for two hours as she finishes the afternoon at her desk.

"It's better than energy drinks, right?" she said, smiling.

Jack Simmons held a pop in his hand and took a few sips as he sat on a bench Thursday evening, waiting for a bus on Sherman Avenue.

It helps him pass the time, he said, is a cheap comfort, perks him up, and yep, the mix of diet and regular sure tastes great.

But there is a problem if he drinks too much and the bus ride takes too long.

"Sometimes I've got to run straight to the restroom," he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.