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Sugary sodas still popular, but warnings, taxes can curb uptake

June 10, 2019 - from Medical Press:

"Eight of every 10 American households buys sodas and other sugary drinks each week, adding up to 2,000 calories per household per week, new research shows. "

"To put that in perspective, 2,000 calories is equal to the recommended average caloric intake for an adult for an entire day."

"With the obesity epidemic continuing for Americans young and old, it's still tough to get the message out that sugary drinks may prove lethal over time, one expert said."

"In the soda consumption study, the CDC team looked at data from a government survey of the weekly grocery-buying habits of nearly 5,000 U.S. households, compiled in 2012."

"The findings showed that on any given week, 77% of households bought sodas, sweetened juices, sports drinks or other sugary beverages. In about half of cases (47%), these drinks were bought for consumption at home."

"On average, households consumed more than 2,000 calories' worth of sugary drinks each week —about 1,200 calories while at home and nearly 760 calories outside the home, the CDC team said. Sodas were by far the leading calorie source, with 678 calories' worth consumed at home and another 472 calories taken in outside the home."

"What can and should be done to help lower these numbers? Two innovations—bold health warnings on drink labels and "soda taxes"— do seem to help, other studies presented at the same meeting showed."

"One group of shoppers were sent to a store where the sodas had prominent health warnings emblazoned on their labels; while the other group went shopping in a store where sodas didn't have such labeling."

"The result? Folks sent to the "warning labels" store bought an average of about 110 calories' worth of sugary beverages, compared to 143 calories among shoppers sent to the store without such warnings."

"The researchers concluded that implementing policies that require sugar-sweetened beverages to carry health warnings could discourage sugar-sweetened beverage consumption."

"In another computer-modeling study, a team led by Christina Griecci of Tufts University in Boston estimated that a 1 cent tax per ounce on every sugar-sweetened beverage could prevent around 17,000 new obesity-associated cancer cases and 10,000 cancer deaths."

"Another Tufts computer-modeling study, this time led by researcher Yujin Lee, found that a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages would work best if the amount of tax went up along with the amount of sugar added."