RedOrbit - Health - Pop Fans Pour It on in the Morning
Consumption of soft drinks at breakfast eaten outside the home has nearly doubled in the past 15 years, while coffee consumption with breakfast outside the home has fallen nearly 25 percent, according to data compiled by New-York based consumer research firm NPD Group, which has offices in Rosemont.
The data is specific to drinks with meals and does not, for example, address the Starbucks phenomenon.
Breakfast consumers order a soft drink with their breakfast 15.1 percent of the time, compared with 7.9 percent of the time in 1990, said Harry Balzer, an NPD executive vice president who has studied American eating habits for more than 25 years. At the same time, Balzer said, coffee was being ordered 38 percent of the time, compared with 48.7 percent 15 years ago.
It probably is not surprising that soft drinks are a growing choice at breakfast considering that nearly half of the U.S. population older than age 4 consumes soft drinks on any given day, according a study commissioned by a milk group.