june 17 2011151 although high school students report drinking plenty of water milk and real fruit juice they still gulp down more sugarsweetened beverages than is probably good for them cdc researchers found nearly threequarters 724 percent of the teens who responded to a national survey said they drank at least one glass of water a day over the preceding seven days nancy brener of the cdc and colleagues reported in the june 17 issue of morbidity mortality weekly report among the 11429 survey respondents 42 percent had at least one glass of milk a day and 302 percent drank 100 percent fruit juice these are healthful beverages and milk and 100 percent fruit juice are sources of key nutrients brener and colleagues wrote read this story on wwwmedpagetodaycom but 243 percent of the teens reported having a soda every day 161 percent said they had a sports drink daily and 169 percent said they drank another type of sugarsweetened beverage every day for their study the researchers assessed data from the national youth physical activity and nutrition study nypans a schoolbased survey among a nationally representative sample of teens in grades 9 through 12 among the respondents boys were more likely report drinking milk and whole fruit juices than girls and whites were more likely than blacks and hispanics to have water and milk every day although whites were less likely than the others to drink 100 percent fruit juice every day boys and blacks were also more likely to drink soda and sports drinks than girls and white or hispanic teenssmaller percentages of students reported drinking more than one sugary drink a day 156 percent had at least two cans of soda per day 92 percent had at least two sports drinks and 98 percent had two or more helpings of other sugarsweetened beverages daily coffee and tea were further down the consumption ladder just 148 percent of students reported drinking these hot beverages at least once a day diet drinks were even less popular with 71 percent reporting that they drank diet soda every day and energy drinks were less popular still with just 5 percent of respondents saying they drank them every daybrener and colleagues noted that the study was limited by its reliance on selfreported data and is not generalizable beyond children who attend public or private high schools they also cautioned that their report shows a lower intake of sugary drinks and a higher consumption of whole fruit juice than other data particularly those from the national health and nutrition examination survey nhanesstill they said schools and parents alike should limit intake of sugarsweetened drinks among all teens while ensuring their access to more healthful beverages they also called for targeted efforts to reduce consumption among males and black teens since intake of soda and sports drinks was highest among those groups