The Politics of Taking On Big Soda

Divabetic

In celebration of ’31 Days of Counting Carbs’ we’re focusing on the carbohydrates we eat and drink.

When you add up the amount of sodas, coffee drinks, juices and smoothies, the additional calories and carbohydrates numbers are mind boggling. From the 1950’s into the first 10 years of the new millennium—soda will go down in the history books as a driving force in the obesity epidemic.

But in 2015, liquid sugar may have met its match. A new culture of health is booming, and has been for the past few years. It’s one where powerhouse health advocates, entire cities (Berkeley, San Francisco, New York City), and the media finally understand the effects liquid sugar plagues on the body and brain.

“[Soda companies] are scrambling to figure out what to do,” says Marion Nestle, a professor in the department of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University, whose new book Soda Politics: Taking on Big Soda (and Winning) was just released.

This is music to my ears because for the past five years in October I have been working with Kathie Dolgin aka High Voltage and the Energy Up! team to get soda out of New York City schools. The program is called ‘Shock-tober’ and students, teachers and administration are encouraged to the take the 5 Day SSB (Sugar Sweetened Beverages) Pledge. The SSB Pledge encourages people to abstain from soda for 5 days. Most people who take the pledge walk away feeling healthier and empowered.

Nevertheless to say, most people outside of the Tri-State Area have never heard of our Shocktober program or the results but that’s okay because sugar sweetened beverage sales have been falling flat for the last decade.

“The word is out: drinking sugar in liquid form is not a good idea,” Nestle says. “The publicity given to Coca-Cola’s funding of researchers was a revelation to lots of people. They were shocked that a company as well known as Coca-Cola would do such a thing.”

Nestle is referring to a recent analysis of beverage studies published in the journal PLOS Medicine, as pointed out recently in The New York Times, that studies funded by Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, the American Beverage Association, and the sugar industry are five times more likely to find that there is no link between soda consumption and weight gain.

And for those who may not be up to speed on the big soda wars,Nestle approaches the new book so that people can parlay the lessons learned across the other health issue about which someone may feel more passionately.

“Read the chapters about marketing to children, minorities, and people in developing countries and apply the advocacy lessons to issues they care about,” she says.

Tackling big soda is still on the forefront for health advocates and will remain at the top of the public health agenda for the U.S. at the municipal and state level.

“We’ve had one successful tax election in Berkeley, California—by a 76 percent majority, no less. The one in San Francisco had a 56 percent majority, but needed two-thirds to pass,” Nestle says. “I’m pretty sure the San Francisco people are gearing up to try again and other places will too. At some point, the soda industry will get tired of spending millions to defeat such measures and give up.”

TUNE IN:October’s Diabetes Late Nite with inspiration from Kelly Clarkson on Tuesday, October 13, 2015, 6 -7 PM, EST.