LET'S MAKE OUR FOOD HEALTHIER

Our communities are drowning in a swamp of unhealthy junk food and beverages, leading to an epidemic of diabetes, obesity, heart disease and tooth decay. Added sugars in our food and drinks are a major threat to public health. And healthy food can be expensive and hard to find in many places.

Healthy Food America is on the frontlines of the fight to ensure that all people have access to healthy, nutritious food and are less exposed to unhealthy junk foods.

We support community leaders across the nation who are advocating for policies and strategies like soda taxes and healthy food incentives to make healthy eating easier for all Americans.

We share the latest research and cutting edge policy and advocacy strategies so advocates can act on the best information and science to drive change in policy, food environments and industry practices. Read more about us.

SODA TAXES WORK

A tax on sugary drinks can raise revenue for programs communities want and reduce consumption of an unhealthy product. Learn more!


FEATURED PUBLICATION

A new study from University of Washington and University of Pennsylvania, led by HFA Executive Director Jim Krieger, found that social media countermarketing messages about sugary fruit drinks reduced parents purchases for their children of these beverages in a simulated online store. Water purchases increased. Consumption of sugary drinks, in particular fruit drinks, is common among young children - especially among Latinx children - and is associated with significant adverse health outcomes. Industry marketing leads parents to believe fruit drinks are healthy beverages by creating a “halo of health” around the product. Ads and labels often contain claims about beneficial nutrients and images of fruit.

The study divided 1628 Latinx parents of children age 0-5 into three groups. One intervention group received fruit drink countermessages only. A second received a combination of countermessages plus water promotion messages. The third control group received car seat safety messages. Parents in the fruit-drink countermarketing group decreased their virtual purchases of fruit drinks by 31% compared to the control group, and by 43% in the group receiving the combined messages.

For more information, go to the study website Truth About Fruit Drinks. You can read the article at doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306488.

In this issue:

  • Identifying Financially Sustainable Pricing Interventions to Promote Healthier Beverage Purchases in Small Neighborhood Stores
  • Review of 100% Fruit Juice and Chronic Health Conditions: Implications for Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Policy
  • The Short-Term Impacts of the Philadelphia Beverage Tax on Beverage Consumption
  • Science organisations and Coca-Cola’s ‘war’ with the public health community: insights from an internal industry document
  • Tackling Obesity and Disease: The Culprit Is Sugar; the Response Is Legal Regulation
  • The negative impact of sugar-sweetened beverages on children’s health: an update of the literature
  • Equity impacts of price policies to promote healthy behaviours
  • The State of US Health, 1990-2016: Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Among US States
  • The association of flavored milk consumption with milk and energy intake, and obesity: A systematic review
  • Prevalence of Obesity and Severe Obesity in US Children, 1999–2016

- download this publication

Help us continue our work.

get updates

Sign in with Facebook, Twitter or email.
Your Privacy | Created with NationBuilder