Posts Tagged ‘beverage’

Here’s a story for people who nurture dark fears about the food industry. Quartz reports that a veteran lobbyist for the American Beverage Association – “big soda” – will lead the transition team on food policy for President-elect Donald Trump. Michael K. Torrey is point man for Trump’s team at the USDA. Torrey collected more […]

In Tuesday’s election, Americans in four cities – Boulder, CO, and San Francisco, Oakland, and Albany, CA – approved soda tax proposals for their cities. In addition, Chicago’s Cook County Board of Commissioners will vote on a soda tax today. These taxes will add a penny or two for each ounce of soda. Economics professor Roland Sturm […]

It’s time for a vote, apparently. And the vote is not just about Trump and Clinton. We’re voting on a soda tax in four cities today: Boulder, CO, and Oakland, San Francisco, and Albany, CA. This question has turned into a stupid food fight, in our humble opinion. We’re talking about soda taxes, not the presidential […]

Soda is so yesterday. Drinking yogurt seems so much healthier. And it may well be. Along with 22 grams of sugar, you get lots of good stuff, like protein, vitamins, and minerals. The calories might be more than a 10-ounce Coke (220 vs 120), but there’s more nutrition. Those numbers come from the Drink Chobani brand, […]

Scorching hot rhetoric seems to be the favored tool for public policy debates at the moment. Obesity related health policy is no exception. The food industry is a huge target with many segments to attack: fast food, processed food makers, industrial farming, “big soda,” and sugar producers. The latest outrage is summed up in this New York […]

When nutrition and health meet marketing, the results can be jolting. PepsiCo’s new organic Gatorade concept takes the crown for healthy-ish marketing from Panera (for Clean Food). It’s a greater stroke of evil marketing genius than veggie chips. Truly, PepsiCo is giving the world the quintessential product that no one knew they needed. It’s USDA […]

The annual meeting of the AADE offered much to like, but a scientific session on sweeteners belongs at the top of the list. Claudia Shwide-Slavin and Alan Barclay gave a concise tour of science and fiction about this sweet stuff that worries the Puritans among us. They had us from the start with a smart list of […]

Authors of a new study published in PLOS ONE report that soda sales were down in Mexico for the first year after an 8% tax on soda and other junk foods went into effect. The decline was especially steep in households with low socioeconomic status (SES). Overall, households cut their consumption of junk foods and sugar-sweetened beverages by 5%. Low SES […]

Repeating a pattern that is all too common, researchers at the University of Michigan have trolled through NHANES data and found a correlation between hydration and obesity. They published it in the Annals of Family Practice. They handed out a press release. And voilà! CNN and others are reporting on a “new secret to losing weight.” Never […]

A new soda tax experiment will be starting January 1 in Philadelphia. On Thursday, the Philadelphia city voted 13-1 to approve a 1.5 cent per ounce tax on all packaged beverages that are sweetened with sugar or no-calorie sweeteners. The beverage industry says it will sue to stop the tax from being implemented. To his credit, Philadelphia’s […]