Hacker News Reader

Comment by kumarvvr | Hacker News Reader

I think it has more to do with alternatives (except perhaps in case of cigarettes which have direct measurable health effects) availability rather than society starting to unplug from addictive substances.

Peak coffee is in 1946, but what have consumers moved onto from then? Alcohol, Tea, Energy drinks, Soft Drinks ?

View on HN

Here is an article [1] that shows consumption of coffee and soft drinks in 1946/47 and 2005. Adding coffee and soft drinks together there has been an increase of approx 32% in consumption since 1946.

Coffee 1946: 46.4 gallons per person

Coffee 2005: 24.2 gallons per person

Soft drinks 1947: 10.8 gallons per person

Soft drinks 2005: 51.5 gallons per person

Total caffeinated consumption in 46/47: 57.2 gallons / person

Total caffeinated consumption in 2005: 75.7 gallons / person

The chart seems to indicate tea has stayed relatively flat in the same time period. I'm not sure the history of caffeine pills or ADHD medicine, but those may also contribute to an increased consumption in 2005.

[1] https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2007/june/coffee-consum...

> Soft drinks 2005: 51.5 gallons per person

Wow, no wonder Diabetes has skyrocketed.

51.5 gallons is almost 900 ml a day. That is about 100 grams of sugar per day.

This is like a epidemic of sugar addiction.

Many soft drinks are sugar-free and zero-calorie.

It doesn't say how much of it is diet.

And of course, IIRC, the "sugar-free" alternatives promote insulin resistance just as much (if in conjunction with food) sans Stevia.

I'm genuinely curious: why are soda/pop/coke/soft drinks so popular? I've never liked them because they're too sugary, and they represent like empty calories (like I'll gain weight without feeling full) from drinks that aren't hydrating. When purchased in a restaurant, it costs money that could be saved or spent on a side dish. I'd much rather eat candy if I want sugar, or drink cold water if I want to hydrate myself.

I don't say this to condemn these drinks (if people like them that much, they're free to spend money on the little things in life they enjoy), but I'd like to square my experience of not caring for them versus their clear popularity from statistics.

Hard to explain! I think I picked up a taste for soda as a kid, I love me a Barqs, any sort of Cream Soda, and a cold Coke on a hot day. That said, I can't drink soda daily or I feel I'll, nor do I drink beer or other carbonated drinks frequently, maybe tops once a week. I drink the most tea out of anything (herbal, green, white) besides water.

As a kid i just drained coke bottles there was no thinking .. it was 'neat' and my body could take a sadly impressive amount of L per day (5 maybe).

Your logic is sensible adult talk ..

ps: my body crashed I'm now borderline allergic to processed foods and sodas, it's still strange to me :)

Thanks for sharing. From your and noah_buddy's comments, it looks like it was a treat from childhood that stuck.

My parents forbade me from soda growing up, but my cousin once snuck me some sugary orange pop once (I didn't like the fizz when I first tried it, but I liked it more when I tried it again). I still have a preference for it sometimes due to the memories (along with root beer, which I also tried when younger) if it's free, though just a small cup. I never tried Coca-Cola or Pepsi until an abnormally older age, so that's probably why these two never stuck for me.

It's about caffeine and carbonation as much as sugar. Caffeine and sugar are highly addictive substances, with obvious habit-forming potential. Carbonation is a unique effect that stimulates and satisfies people, and probably provides a physical "hook" for addiction, like how many heroin addicts crave the feeling of the needle.

I really enjoy carbonated beverages, the whole sensory package the bubbles bring to the drinking experience. I have had an easy experience substituting the soda I drank as a child for a more healthy carbonated beverage.

> I've never liked them because they're too sugary

This is the crux of the matter. Whether something is too sugary is a matter of taste and habit. It tastes too sugary to you, but great to other people.

That also makes a lot of sense (my other hypothesis, which doesn't necessarily contradict, is that I wasn't introduced to much soda growing up). This could also explain a personal preference for salty food (taste and habit) that other people I've met don't seem to share.

I'm not sure about that. My mother was from a developing country and only tried soda for the first time when she tried it in a developed country as an adult, and fell in love with it immediately. She doesn't drink sugary sodas anymore but still loves sparkling water, champagne, and anything bubbly.

I think the same way about cigarettes, weed, and coffee, wtf is so good about it that you go out of your way to get it?

But this is the thing about addiction, to the person who isn't hooked it seems odd.

As a kid I used to wake up at night and drink Coke. I just craved it, that's how it was. I still like something sweet to drink but I control it these days, and my taste is not quite the same as an adult. Still, there's no accounting for it, you want something because you want it. Best explanation I can find is that it triggers something connected to reward paths in a way that isn't how that reward path evolved.

Or 387 calories a day! Presumably they were adding less sugar to their coffee.

It's a lot but it is the total consumption so it includes all stuff that was sold not necessarily consumed. Fast food sells massive portion that people regularly throw away half full, auto-refills, expired stuff, hell just think of all the coke+menthol videos.

I find the coffee at 46 gallons stranger. 570ml a day of coffee? What's even more wtf is that in Central Europe during and after the war coffee was very expensive/difficult to get so people were drinking coffee substitutes (chicory root for example) while people in the US drank half liter a day.

Half a litre isn't that much in the grand scheme of things. It's maybe two decent mugs, or less than a pint. Especially when you consider American filter coffee is on the weaker side.

Is coffee stronger now? If you have a latte do all of its gallons go towards "coffee" or just the shot?

I'd assume it's all included. There is more than 1 way to brew coffee, and even those there is a standard for it, there would be no way to normalize consumption to it.

>Coffee 1946: 46.4 gallons per person

>Coffee 2005: 24.2 gallons per person

24.2 gallons per person.. so that is 24.2 gallon / 365 days * 128 oz/gallon / 8oz/cup = 1.06 cup / day.

1 cup per day? That seems crazy low. I guess that must include kids/young adults..

Plenty of people don't drink coffee at all. It's actually higher than I would have expected.

Not every person drinks coffee. Having ~1 cup per person as an average doesn't stand out as being odd to me.

Soft drinks mostly, but even that appeared to be in the early stages of tapering as of 2005. What is next?

https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/charts/58920/finding_buzbyf...

Current fads that come to mind

- Gatorade and similar stuff - A movement to drink water (HydroHomies) - High caffeine energy drinks (Red bull and the likes) - Healthy alternatives (juices, smoothies, etc)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com