By Sarah Haley, MD, Second Year Resident

We know that Americans consume on average > 30 pounds of added sugar a year. We also know that sugary beverages account for over half of American’s source of added sugar and that kids  on average consume 10 times the recommended amount of sugary beverages. What we may not have realized is that communities of color are disproportionately targeted when it comes to sugary beverage ads. Hispanic and African American youth see over twice the number of television ads for sugary beverages compared to their white youth peers (17.1 times per day vs. 7.8 times per day, respectively).