50%

Percent of Americans over age 2 who consume a sugary drink every day. Teen boys, aged 12-19, get the most calories of any group — 273 per day — from sugar-sweetened sodas and waters, energy drinks and fruit drinks. That's more than half the American Heart Association's recommended maximum of 450 calories of sugar-sweetened beverages — or fewer than three 12-oz. cans of carbonated soda — per week. Other big soda guzzlers: minority and poor Americans, who get a larger percentage of their daily calories from sugary beverages than do whites or those with higher incomes. So, what's the problem? "Sugar drinks have been linked to poor diet quality, weight gain, obesity and, in adults, Type 2 diabetes," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. [via CDC]