Background: In Germany, information on trends in non-alcoholic beverage intake over the last decades is sparse. The aim of this analysis is to examine trends in non-alcoholic beverage consumption among adults living in Germany between 1990 and 2011 with special focus on gender, age and education level.

Methods: We used self-reported food frequency questionnaire information from 25 to 69 year old participants of three German National Health Interview and Examination Surveys conducted in 1990–1992 (n = 7466), 1997–1999 (n = 5825) and 2008–2011 (n = 5375) and focused on consumption frequency of fruit juice, soft drinks, water, tea and coffee. Positive answers in the categories “almost daily”, “daily” and “daily and more” were categorized as frequent beverage intake. Proportion estimates and 95%-CI were weighted to better reflect the German population using SAS 9.4 survey procedures for complex sample designs.

Results: Between 1990–1992 and 2008–2011, the proportion of men and women who reported to frequently drink juice, soft drinks, water or tea has increased from 21.9% (95%-CI: 20.8–23.0%) to 27.2% (25.6–29.0%), 10.0% (9.0–11.1%) to 18.7% (17.3–20.3%), 59.1% (56.8–61.4%) to 87.6% (86.2–88.9%), and 32.2% (30.3–34.2%) to 39.2% (36.9–41.5%), respectively. Frequent consumption of coffee decreased from 80.6% (79.1–82.0%) in 1990–1992 to 74.9% (73.3–76.5%) in 1997–1999 and increased to 81.2% (79.8–82.6%) in 2008–2011. Frequent consumption of juice increased over time among men with middle and high education (17.7% (15.7–19.8%) to 26.4% (23.4–29.6%) and 22.9% (20.2–25.8%) to 32.7% (29.4–36.2%), respectively), whereas a similar increase was only seen among women with low education (19.8% (17.1–22.9%) to 28.4% (22.9–34.7%). Frequent soft drink consumption increased among men in all age and education groups but among women only in the 25 to 34 year age group and in the low education group. Frequent water consumption increased about 20% or more among men and women, in all age and education groups.

Conclusions: The results show changes in non-alcoholic beverage consumption over the past two decades in Germany. Exploring non-alcoholic beverage intake over time is important for the evaluation of consumption patterns with regard to guidelines and to design appropriate prevention measures.