If you are a connoisseur of Coca-cola like I am, you know that fountain sodas are far more delicious than their canned or bottled counterparts.  You’ll also know that there’s quite a bit of variability between fountains: some are too watery, some too syrupy, and some have funky flavors that probably come from never cleaning the supply lines.

What you may not realize is that fountain sodas have a hidden treat: 20-30% more sugar than advertised.  Yum.

Well, actually, not yum.  We’ve already talked about the fact that sugar, and specifically fructose, are probably at the root of America’s obesity epidemic.    An additional 30% sugar (plus free refills!) in your 32 ounce big-gulp adds up to an astounding amount of weight gain over the course of a year.

The study finding additional sugar in our beverages also found that High Fructose Corn Syrup, currently touted as “corn sugar” (It’s just like regular sugar, but from corn!) by corn grower lobbies, contains an average of 60% fructose, compared to table sugar’s 50%.

Why add more fructose?  I’ll give you one guess:

The trouble with a fructose overdose is that your body metabolizes that sugar into triglycerides, bad cholesterol, and fat.  The more we drink, the more fat we store and deposit in our blood vessels.  Ever wonder why our “low-fat” and “lite” food craze of the past two decades has not caused us to lose weight? Just look at your food labels: fructose, sugar, and HFCS are in everything.

According to the study,

The consumption of high amounts of fructose has been found to be particularly associated with negative health outcomes such as insulin resistance, triglyceride deposition in the liver, and kidney stones.

Here’s an ad from the New York Health Dept. showing how many packets of sugar you’ll find in the average soda.  This might be effective advertising for adults, but I totally remember eating packs of sugar as a kid…  They were delicious.