Scientist Calls For Warnings, Tax On Soda

[The Straight Story]

Scientist Calls For Warnings, Tax On Soda

Soda Industry, Researcher Face Off On Obesity Debate
A fight is brewing between health researchers and the beverage industry over whether a warning should be put on soda.

University of North Carolina scientist Barry Popkin is pushing for a warning label for sodas and linking their consumption to obesity. He said the nation got heavier at the same rate soda became more popular.

Kevin Keane of the American Beverage Association said it's unfair to hold one product responsible for the nation's obesity problem. He said children are much less active now than a few years ago.

Popkin is also in favor of a soda tax, such as the one on tobacco. He said studies involving the links of soda and obesity are at the same stage as studies on tobacco and health problems several years ago, when those warnings were issued.

http://www.local6.com/health/7710516/detail.html

[Whoa_Nelly]

1. So, a tax on fast food should follow

insanity in legislation continues.... :yoiks:

[The Straight Story]

7. They will use same argument they did for smoking

Soda drinkers cost us more in health care, so they should pay more taxes.

[KittyWampus]

25. The at least shift argument to labelling soda as cause of obestity and

restricting when, where and to whom it is advertised.

[KittyWampus]

24. PLEASE! I implore DU'ers to re-examine their reactions.

There is more to this then 'consumer choice', especially since the overwhelming majority of us are not informed about the ill effects soda has on our health & environment. Consumers are not making INFORMED choices when it comes to soda and food. And a lot of the information available is generated by.... the FOOD INDUSTRIES OWN PAID-FOR "SCIENTISTS".

Consider the manipulative, mindfucking advertising.
Consider how addictive corn syrup and hyper-sweet soda is.
Consider how much corporations may have know regarding the deletorious effects of their products on our health.

Think of the Tobacco industry.

There is precident for labelling addictive products, requiring warning labels and restricting advertising.

[MADem]

2. OK, what about diet soda? Will they tax that as well??

Soda, like it or not, is a friken FOOD item. A LOUSY food item, to be sure, but a food item.

What's next? A tax on ice cream? How about coffee creamer--that shit's bad for ya, too!! A cookie tax!!!

Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit...you don't tax FOOD. It's a slippery slope.

[Rainscents]

3. YES!

I seen this coming miles away when they taxed Cigs and Alchohols because, "IT" was bad for you! Slowly, they'll find the way to other things it's bad for "YOU", so they can tax the hell out of you!

Next... Companies will target anyone who drinks sodas because, it coast too much to insure them.

[Clark2008]

13. Uhhh... in Tennessee food is taxed.

We don't have a state income tax - ALL products are sales taxed.

[MADem]

20. That is truly reprehensible

Talk about a tax on the poor! It's not like people have a choice to eat or not eat (assuming they want to live). I mean, you can CHOOSE to buy or not buy that luxury yacht or that fur coat, but taxing grocery foods just sucks!

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

4. God I Hate Extremists. Just Try And Tax My Coke. Just Fuckin Try It.

[Earth_First]

19. http://www.killercoke.org/

http://www.killercoke.org/

Not to mention the groundwater problems that citizens of India are having from Coca Cola bottling facilities in their country...

http://www.indiaresource.org/index.html

When our family found out about the atrocities that Coca Cola were contributing to globally, we vowed never to purchase another Coca Cola product again.

I'd urge you to do the same if Organized Labor and human rights mean anything to you, which I'd assume are important values of you and your family.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

23. Ain't Gonna Happen LOL

[Burning Water]

5. Warnings, yes

taxes, no. Choice in food and recreation.

[KittyWampus]

26. IMO, warning labels AND restrictions on advertising

[Burning Water]

28. I have major issues

with restricting freedom of speech, even commercial speech, as long as they don't lie, of course.

[Giant Robot]

6. Looks all jittery...

No one better come for my Coke, man. I'll cut ya! I swear I will!

[Rosemary2205]

8. I think that scientist is loopy.

I have a 10-30# weight problem (fluctuates) and I've NEVER EVER drank a soda in my life and rarely eat anything sweetened. My whole family is like this. We just don't care for sweets but we EAT too much and MOVE too little for our genetics.

IMHO fat kids are fat because they sit around all day and all night instead of going out to play (run around and act like a bunch of maniacs the way kids should). The reasons for this are as numerous as there are kids.

[otohara]

10. No He's Not Loopy

Coke, Mt. Dew, Dr. Pepper is fattening, addictive and is responsible for more than just empty calories. 12 teaspoons of sugar in one can - you think that's not a problem?

[SmokingJacket]

14. Many people drink a LOT of soda.

I can't imagine all that refined sugar is easy for the body to process.

But yeah, you're right about not moving, too. I live less than a mile from a grocery store, sidewalks the whole way, and only ever see one or two neighbors ever walking that trip.

It's also my personal theory that lack of exercise is to blame for a lot of cases of hyperactivity. Kids were designed to run around hard for a couple of hours a day, at least. My own sons literally bounce off the walls if I don't get them outside every day.

I would probably need to see some harder science before I supported a soda tax, though.

[Sydnie]

9. they are looking at this as the same thing as asbestos

Now that the benzine levels are rising again, they will need a ready fund to bail out the soda companies with as the cancer suits rise. Tax it now and you can absorb some of the costs for a bit. Once there are too many cases and they are beginning to be won, they will make them set up a bogus fund just like the asbestos fund, which will give the soda manufacturers 50% of the fund to manage it too.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

11. One more way for them to squeeze more tax money out of the average

...American.

If they get away with this next they'll be coming for Little Debbie's and Hostess.

[sarcasmo]

12. Michigan will quickly tax each soda $2.00, just like they did to smokes.

[otohara]

15. Bone Loss, Tooth Loss, Kidney Damage, Not Just Obesity Problem

Dr. Earl Mindell
Earl Mindell's New Vitamin Bible

"Recent research has linked soft drinks with childhood obesity< and an
estimated 200 school districts nationwide have contracts with soft drink
companies that give them exclusive rights to sell their products in
schools."

"Saccharin is a noncaloric petroleum derivative estimated to be three
hundred to five hundred times sweeter than sugarS It's used in diet soft
drinksS Studies done in the 1970s linked saccharin ingestion to bladder
cancer in laboratory animals"

"Children who drink large quantities of diet sodas containing aspartame are
particularly vulnerable to its dangerous side effects."

"Aspartame contains methyl or wood alcohol, which can affect fetal brain
development."

"Twenty-one percent of the sugar in the American diet comes from soft
drinks! That's more than just an unhealthy consumption of empty calories. It
is a dangerous overload of caffeine and potentially hazardous,
nutrient-depleting additives."

"Soft drinks contain large amounts of phosphorus, which can throw off the
body's calcium/phosphorus ratio (twice as much calcium as phosphorus),
decreasing calcium as well as reducing your body's ability to use it."

"For anyone over age 40, soft drinks can be especially hazardous because
the kidneys are less able to excrete excess phosphorus, causing depletion of
vital calcium."

"Heavy soft drink consumption can interfere with your body's metabolization
of iron and diminish nerve impulse transmission."

"Cola drinks can interact adversely with antacids, possibly causing
constipation, calcium loss, hypertension, nausea, vomiting, headaches, and
kidney damage."

"Soft drinks can decrease the antibacterial action of penicillin and
ampicillin."

"Diet sodas that are low in calories are high in sodium. Too much salt in
the diet may cause more calcium to be excreted in the urine and increase the
risk of osteoporosis."

"Excessive consumption of soft drinks, which are high in phosphorus, can
also deplete you of calcium and increase your chances of osteoporosis."

http://www.organicconsumers.org/school/cocacola021605.cfm

[porphyrian]

16. The warning label part is the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

After the illustrated toddler-could-drown warning label I saw on a bucket, (no, I'm not pro-toddler drowning, I just can't believe anyone's that fucking stupid) that is. The tax would be a good idea if it were actually used to help pay for the cost of obesity-related health care. More likely, however, it would be fought over by every department of every government agency barely related to the issue, frozen by the court for at least a year, then wasted on an ineffective advertising campaign.

[The Straight Story]

17. They should tax life and how old you are - older you are, closer to death

and more likely to be ill and cost us more :)

Life leads to death, so perhaps they can work on a cure for death - America's #1 killer. Perhaps I can get a telethon started and raise money for research...anyone want to donate to me??

[porphyrian]

21. Life is always fatal. - n/t

[KittyWampus]

27. Are warning labels on cigarettes & alchohol stupid too?

Funny how many people say "it's all about consumers making choices" but they aren't willing to ensure that we can make an EDUCATED/INFORMED choice.

Do you realise that soda switched to corn syrup as sweetner in the 70's and the rise in obesity has risen with corn syrups' use?

Do you realise that food manufacturers now put corn syrup into food they didn't used to?

Do you realise that hyper-sweetened food is literally addictive. It alters ones brain chemistry just like a drug and makes naturally sweet foods nearly tasteless.

[porphyrian]

29. Yes, they are, as are people who put too much faith in labels...

...and their ability to inform and educate. I'm all for being an informed consumer, and I'm all for companies having to disclose the ingredients and dangers of their products. However, the warning labels on cigarettes and alcohol (and buckets, for that matter) are only there because those companies have been sued by people wanting to punish those companies, not for any altruistic humanitarian purpose.

Yes, yes, and yes, and I didn't learn any of it from stupid labels.

[Avalux]

18. What about the benzene??

The FDA has known about it for 15 years; thought the problem had been "privately" fixed, but guess what?


"The issue has never been announced to the public, with America's soft drinks association telling the FDA in early 1991 that it would “get the word out” across the industry about the need to reformulate drinks. More FDA tests in 1993 found no problem.

Yet, recent FDA tests showed some drinks in the US still contained benzene above the country's legal limit for drinking water, and an FDA chemist said more reformulation would be required.

The FDA was re-alerted to the issue by independent laboratory tests in New York."

http://www.beveragedaily.com/news/ng.asp?n=65933-benzene-soft-drinks-food-safety

[The Straight Story]

22. Funny thing about that too:

I wonder how many people got some form of cancer from that who also smoked? And if they reported the death as cancer related and person was a smoker those stats went up - versus stats that linked it instead to benzene (or one of many other things).