Drinking to our health: can beverage companies cut calories while maintaining profits?
Open accessAbstract
Carbonated soft drinks and other beverages make up an increasing percentage of energy intake, and there are rising public health concerns about the links between consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and weight gain, obesity, and other cardiometabolic problems. In response, the food and beverage industry claims to be reformulating products, reducing package or portion sizes and introducing healthier options. Comparative analysis on various changes and their potential effects on public health are needed. We conduct a case study using the two largest and most influential producers of sweetened beverages, The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo Inc., who together control 34% of the global soft drink market, examining their product portfolios globally and in three critical markets (the United States, Brazil and China) from 2000 to 2010. On a global basis, total revenues and energy per capita sold increased, yet the average energy density (kJ 100 mL(-1) ) sold declined slightly, suggesting a shift to lower-calorie products. In the United States, both total energy per capita and average energy density of beverages sold decreased, while the opposite was true in the developing markets of Brazil and China, with total per capita energy increasing greatly in China and, to a lesser extent, in Brazil.
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In the 1985 to 2005 period extensive added sugar intake occurred across HIC, but more recently large increases have occurred in LMIC, particularly in consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and processed foods.
“In the 1985 to 2005 period extensive added sugar intake occurred across HIC (55) but more recently large increases have occurred in LMIC, particularly in consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and processed foods (56–59).”
From Food Consumption and its Impact on Cardiovascular Disease: Importance of Solutions Focused on the Globalized Food System (2015) · cites this paper as [57]
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- Authors
- Kleiman, S., Ng, S. W., & Popkin, B.
- Affiliations
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
- Corresponding author
- Popkin, B.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Obesity Reviews
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2011-11-10
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 258-274
- ISSN
- 1467-7881 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-789X
- PMC
- PMC3420345
- OpenAlex
- W1853249141
- Cited by
- 104
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 4 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 21 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 18 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 4.43
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- europepmc.org
- Locations
- Obesity Reviews (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
- National Institutes of Health (2r24hd050924-06)
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (R01HL104580)
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R24 HD-050924)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Global Public Health Policies and Epidemiology
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Consumer Attitudes and Food Labeling
- Keywords
- sugar-sweetened beverages, soft drinks, energy density, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, corporate profits, obesity, cardiometabolic risk, emerging markets, portion size reduction
- MeSH terms
- Beverages, Energy Intake, Carbonated Beverages, Drinking, Drinking Behavior, Food Preferences, Food Supply, Humans, Nutritive Value, Obesity, Public Health
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