Tag: SSBs
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Harvard Study Claims to Demonstrate Effectiveness of Soda Tax
A recent study has reportedly linked a 35 percent tax on sugar-sweetened beverages to a 26-percent reduction in sales over a four-week period. Jason Block, et al., “Point-of-Purchase and Education Intervention to Reduce Consumption of Sugary Soft Drinks,” American Journal of Public Health, June 2010. Harvard University researchers apparently imposed the equivalent of a penny-per-ounce…
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Mexico Adopts Stringent School Food Rules to Combat Obesity
Mexican health officials have reportedly unveiled stringent guidelines that would prohibit the sale of processed or fried foods on school grounds. According to media sources, the regulations would ban soft drinks and other sugar-sweetened beverages along with more traditional fare such as meat tortas, tamarind candy and atole, unless they were reformulated to meet nutritional…
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Local Governments Fail to Pass Soft Drink Taxes
According to news sources, both Philadelphia and the District of Columbia have failed to adopt taxes on sweetened beverages. Philadelphia’s mayor apparently never had a council majority to support his proposed soda tax and has now indicated that he will be forced to make cuts to police and fire department budgets and limit branch libraries to…
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Chocolate Toddler Formula Draws Ire of Consumer Advocates
“Don’t you love the idea of year-old infants drinking sugar-sweetened chocolate milk? And laced with ‘omega-3s for brain development, 25 nutrients for healthy growth, and prebiotics to support the immune system’?,” opines New York University Professor Marion Nestle in an April 26, 2010, Food Politics blog post decrying chocolate dietary supplements for toddlers ages 12…
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Tom Bartlett, “Step Away From the Coke Machine,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 4, 2010
The Chronicle of Higher Education recently profiled Kelly Brownell, director of Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, and his decades-long advocacy of soft drink taxes, an idea that once attracted derision but today “doesn’t seem so radical.” The Chronicle notes “growing evidence of a link between price and consumption,” citing recent reports…
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Battle over Soft Drink Taxes Gains Momentum
Facing budget shortfalls in the upcoming fiscal year, several state and city legislatures are reportedly considering a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages. Kansas Senator John Vratil (R-Leawood) this week proposed a bill (S.B. 567) that would tax such products, including energy and sports drinks, at the rate of one penny per teaspoon of sugar. According to…
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Mark Bittman, “Soda: A Sin We Sip Instead of Smoke?,” The New York Times, February 12, 2010
“In their critics’ eyes, producers of sugar-sweetened drinks are acting a lot like the tobacco industry of old: marketing heavily to children, claiming their products are healthy or at worst benign, and lobbying to prevent change,” begins New York Times columnist Mark Bittman in this article questioning whether aggressive public health initiatives, like those deployed to…
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Rudd Center to Hold Soft Drink Tax Webinar
Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity has announced a March 9, 2010, webinar to discuss “the rationale, relevant science, and economic and policy considerations of soft drink taxes.” The conference will reportedly update participants about the latest developments in state and local policies since July 2009, when director Kelly Brownell presented the…