Pictured above is what an AVERAGE American consumes in sugar per year. If you were to count the number of 5 lb. bags visible you would count 32. According to recent research, the average American consumes 160 lbs. of sugar a year. Now let's put this into perspective.

One 8 oz. can of Pepsi has 28 grams of carbs and 28 grams of those carbs are sugar. So in order to find out how many teaspoons of anything is in a food, or in this case a beverage, then know 1 teaspoon of the same sugar found in those bags above has 4 grams of carbs. The simple math in this exercise would look like this: 28 grams of carbs (sugar) divided by 4 grams of carbs (1 teaspoon of sugar) equals 7 teaspoons of sugar in one 8 ounce can.

Now, who do you see drinking 8 ounce cans!? It's always 16 - 20 ounce bottles. In the "typical" American's case - 52 to 66 grams of sugar carbs are in one drink (13 - 16.5 teaspoons of sugar). To break this down even further, and keep in mind this is only from 1 pop, there are 11 1/4 cups in a 5 pound bag of sugar.

To find out the REAL ugliness of this - there are 16 tablespoons in one cup and 3 teaspoons in 1 tablespoon. Drum roll please....................there are 48 teaspoons in 1 cup.

The math looks like the following:
11.25 cups per 5 lb bag of sugar
48 teaspoons in 1 cup
(48 X 11.25) = 540 teaspoons in one 5 pound bag of sugar

So if you had 1 pop a day then my annual numbers would look like this:
16 ounce bottles - 13 teaspoons of sugar times 365 days equals 4645 teaspoons of sugar
20 ounce bottles - 16.5 teaspoons of sugar times 365 days equals 6022.5 teaspoons of sugar

Hold on because the beating has only begun........

There are 15 calories in a teaspoon of sugar. Typically, 3800 calories will make up 1 pound of fat. I'll continue with the 16 and 20 ounce scenarios.

16 ounces - 4645 teaspoons x 15 calories per teaspoon = 69,675 calories for the year (18.34 lbs of fat added to your frame)
20 ounces - 6022.5 teaspoons x 15 calories per teaspoon = 90,337.5 calories for the year (23.77 lbs. of fat added to your frame)

The final number:
16 ounces of pop = 8.6 bags of sugar a year
20 ounces of pop = 11.15 bags of sugar a year

I would like to personally thank all the soda manufacturers out there for helping us with our blood sugar problems. Because of you the 54 or so million pre-diabetics in this country will help guarantee the drug companies stay in business down the road. And just like the idiots on the streets insure there will always be a need for Law Enforcement, scenarios like this will ensure fit-pros like myself will always have people to help. And I didn't say that with a smile on my face!

Stay tuned for the next post when I dive into the heart and what all this is doing to us as a human race.