The Checkup: Nearly Half of Americans Drink Soda Every Day

• Hat tip to Be Well twitter follower Josh Wagner for bringing this item to my attention: A new Gallup poll found that 48 percent—almost half—of Americans drink at least one glass of soda per day. Count me among the 52 percent who say they don’t drink any soda. (It’s less a health thing and more a I-don’t-like-the-fizz thing.) The poll got even more into the weeds: Seven percent of Americans, it found, drink four or more glasses of soda each day; 28 percent say they drink one. The average soda consumption among soda drinkers was 2.6 glasses. Considering that there’s 140 calories in a can of Coke (multiplied by 2.6, that’s a grand total of 364 liquid calories each day), you’re looking at 2,548 calories each week just from your soda intake. Shall we look at your yearly total? That’d be 132,496 calories each year thanks to your soda habit. And since there are roughly 3,500 calories in a pound of fat, that equals … well, you get the point. Time to switch to water?

• Imagine this: You’ve just won the gold medal at the Olympics, when suddenly your phone starts ringing and it’s … President of the United States. That’s what happened to the Fab Five yesterday after taking home the team gold for women’s gymnastics. No biggie.

• When the Olympic track events get underway later this week, don’t be alarmed when there’s no starting pistol in sight. As the Atlantic reports, organizers did away with the pistol start this year in order to quash an unfair advantage: the speed of sound. No really—read all about it.