It’s Been a Rough Year for Sugar

It’s been a rough year for sugar. In my previous blog HERE, I wrote about  the article published in health journal Obesity that  found sugary beverage consumption down 20% in children and 10% in adults from 2003. Fruit juice and sodas took major hits, replaced at the popular table by coconut water and seltzers. Coconut water consumption increased 228% worldwide from 2011 to 2016. Seltzer sales grew from $2.6 billion in 2011 to a projected $8.5 billion last year, led by La Croix, the staple of the suburban Midwest turned cult beverage Here are some other “BAD” news stories about sugar

1. PepsiCo announced they would buy home seltzer maker SodaStream  (“a good hedge” said Mad Money’s Jim Cramer!),
2. Coca-Cola announced they would acquire the 4,000-store Costa Coffee chain
3. Starbucks announced they’re beginning to test a lower sugar Frappuccino  because even  tweens have started to question the logic behind consuming 67 grams of sugar in one sitting.

When three of the biggest drink manufacturers in the world each make a move  away from the sugary thing that originally made them giant drink manufacturers, we’re reaching a tipping point.