Posts Tagged ‘beverage’

What is happening to our freedom fries? Just a day after Burger King proudly announced their diet fries, we hear of McDonald’s going veggie. They topped the Satisfries gambit by offering to dump fries from value meals altogether for customers who would rather get a salad or fruit. On top of all this, the news […]

Look out for fructose is advice we’ve heard now for almost a decade since Barry Popkin and George Bray suggested that high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) might be contributing to epidemic rates of obesity. In the August issue of Pediatric Obesity, Bray and Popkin acknowledge that their warning has led to a substitution of equally harmful […]

Big sodas and the freedom to buy them in New York City won another day in court Tuesday. A panel of four judges from the state’s Appellate Division ruled unanimously that the city’s Board of Health exceeded its authority in banning the sale of sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces. The judges said that the […]

We have ample reasons to eliminate sugar-sweetened beverages from our diets. The notion of policy initiatives to encourage people to do this attracts a lot of support, with good reasons. And yet, when we seek hard evidence for the effect that these initiatives will have on obesity, the evidence for a meaningful effect turns out […]

Don’t look now, but consumer power may be accomplishing what activists like Bloomberg could not do by themselves — a real reduction in sugar consumption. Two recent analyses suggest that consumers are turning away from sugary foods for both adults and children. USA Today and the NPD Group report this week that consumption of almost […]

Many observers have taken Michael Bloomberg to task for his (so far) ill-fated big soda ban in New York City. But two recently have taken a step back to consider the pros and cons of consumer paternalism and even offer some thoughts on how someone with Bloomberg’s expertise and influence might make a difference in […]

This week, the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation (HWCF) — an alliance of leading food and beverage companies — held a calorie counting party. Three years ago the HWCF committed to cut 1.5 trillion calories from the American food supply by 2015. And this week they announced they met and surpassed the goal two years early. […]

Philosophers and theologians have debated free will throughout human history. These debates creep into dialog about obesity, bringing bias to obesity-related research and policy. It’s pretty clear individual choices play a role in obesity. But perhaps equally important are biological factors that vary from person to person. Likewise community (or environmental) factors govern our choices […]

A study published recently in PLoS One suggests the availability of sugar at the population level is a significant statistical determinant of type 2 diabetes prevalence rates, independent of its role in obesity. In looking at obesity levels and sugar availability levels in different countries around the world and controlling for other factors, the study’s […]

Good-bye, soda. Hello, water. Sitting atop Beverage Digest’s recently-released annual rankings of America’s most consumed drinks was a old favorite: water. Carbonated soft drinks, which have enjoyed the #1 spot since the 1980s, fell to #2. In its heyday, soda was consumed by Americans at a rate of 54 gallons per year versus just 42 […]