Start today. Take on the Life's Sweeter Challenge to limit soda and other sugary drinks in your home, your workplace, and your community.

Help protect our children, our families, our co-workers, and ourselves from the harmful effects of soda consumption, one of the biggest contributors to obesity in America.

Support a realistic goal to reduce consumption of soda and other sugary drinks by more than half to a maximum of 3 per person per week by 2020, a healthy target proposed by the American Heart Association.

Reasons to Join the Challenge

There are many reasons to join the challenge to reduce sugary drink consumption. Here's just a few of them:

• More than two-thirds of American adults and one in three children are overweight or obese.
• Health-care costs related to obesity total about $150 billion per year.
• Sugary drinks, few of which have any nutritional value, account for half of all added sugars in the average American diet.
• Research has demonstrated a direct relationship between consumption of sugary drinks and an increase in the risk of overweight and obesity, which in turn promote diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and many other health problems.
• Consumption of calories from sugary drinks doubled between 1977 and 2002, though consumption has declined somewhat since then; in the mid-1990s, consumption of sugary drinks began to exceed the intake of milk.
• Sugary drinks' empty calories displace calories from foods, such as low-fat milk, that are rich in nutrients.
• The sizes of standard sugary drink containers have exploded in the past decades, expanding from Coca-Cola's 6.5 ounces in the 1950s to 20 ounces today.
• Each additional sugary drink consumed per day increases the likelihood of a child's becoming obese by about 60 percent, according to one study.
• The sugar and acid in soft drinks promote tooth decay and enamel erosion, which are particularly prevalent among low-income and minority youth.
• According to the Federal Trade Commission, in 2006, the carbonated beverage industry spent $492 million marketing directly to youth.
• According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, individuals should drink water instead of sugary drinks. www.choosemyplate.gov