Years ago, Pepsi called itself “the choice of a new generation,” but that’s no longer true for Pepsi or any other soda maker. Sales of those carbonated, sugary drinks are sinking thanks in part to more vigilant parents and the changing tastes of teens.

According to Beverage Digest, the average American can be expected to drink 44 gallons of soda this year. That’s a lot unless you compare it to 1998 when Americans drank an average of 51 gallons. That’s a 20 percent drop; and in 2013, sales sank by 3 percent. Diet drinks especially are going flat.

Soda makers are losing market share to a variety of other options on the shelves, options many teens prefer to pop.

“Consumers are slow to change their attitudes, but they do change, and that may be what we’re seeing here,” said Keith-Thomas Ayoob, associate clinical professor in pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. “There are new beverage categories now, from fancy combination juices, to enhanced waters, energy drinks, etc. that convey some sort of value-added quality, real or imagined. Soda can then look more mundane by comparison.” (ABC News)

Paul Asay has covered religion for The Washington Post, Christianity Today, Beliefnet.com and The (Colorado Springs) Gazette. He writes about culture for Plugged In and wrote the Batman book God on the Streets of Gotham (Tyndale). He lives in Colorado Springs with wife, Wendy, and his two children. Follow him on Twitter.