Soft Drinks are the #1 source of calories for Americans.

Although consumption of sodas has dropped about 16% per capita since 1998, the average American still drank slightly less than 2 sodas per day. This has left brands like Coke and Pepsi scrambling to solve their drop in sales. Market observers think we're entering a slow decline of soda consumption. 

Still, sugary soft drink is the #1 source of calories in the average American diet. Think about it. It means that if you're the average person, you get more calories from drinking Coke or Kool-Aid than you do from pizza, hamburgers, French fries and everything else. 

The holy grail is, of course, finding an all-natural sweetener that has no calories. Many people are still apprehensive of the stuff used to give diet sodas their flavor. Until then, soda companies fight the downward trend by adding new brands, flavors and other products like bottled water.

(Source)