Food In Canada

Consumers switching to water and less carbonated beverages to manage weight

By Food in Canada staff   

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Mintel, a Chicago-based research firm, released the results of a survey it conducted in November 2008.

Using the results, Mintel estimates that from 2003 to 2008, the regular carbonated soft drink market lost 15.6 million adult drinkers.

Survey stats

Mintel says that 68 per cent of respondents said they drank regular soda in 2008, which is down from 76 per cent in 2003.

During the same period, the number of diet soda drinkers grew. In fact, 7.8 million more adults reported drinking diet soda in 2008 than in 2003.

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Other stats from the survey include:

• One in three beverage-purchasing adults (34 per cent) said they’re drinking more water and less carbonated beverages to manage weight or other health concerns, compared to 2006.

In general Mintel has seen rapid growth in the number of consumers who regularly drink non-soda options:

• Bottled water: 24 million more Americans drank bottled water in 2008 than in 2003

• Energy drinks: Driven by young adults, the number of energy drink users nearly doubled from 2003 to 2008 (to 34.5 million from 17.4 million)

• Sports drinks: In the past five years, 11 million adults started drinking sports drinks.


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