Soda at Healthy Food America

Lyrics we’d like to see on Coke cans

With soda consumption reaching record lows, the industry is scrambling to turn sales around. As more consumers recognize the harms of sugary drinks, Coca Cola is hoping to shift the conversation away from what’s on the inside of its bottles to what’s on the outside. As Coke’s chief marketing officer put it, “Packaging is our most visible and valuable asset.”

To that end, the soda giant is putting song lyrics on cans and bottles so young people will consume more of its liquid candy. The current bid to co-opt pop culture is the latest twist on an old gambit: Recall “I’d like to Buy the World a Coke” from 1971.

Bernie mouthing corporate propaganda? Say it ain’t so, supporters say

Did Bernie Sanders know he was parroting Big Soda’s deceptive framing when he bashed the Philadelphia mayor’s plan to fund universal preschool with a tax on sugary drinks, calling it “regressive” and a “grocery tax”?

The move rattled some of his supporters, who wondered how he could have missed the fact that soda is to groceries as flies are to soup: You might find them in the same place, but that doesn’t mean they’re both to be consumed for nourishment.

Philly soda tax would prevent thousands of cases of obesity, extend lives, avert millions in health costs over 10 years, Harvard model projects

Philadelphia’s proposed tax on sugary drinks would reduce consumption of health-harming beverages enough to prevent thousands of cases of obesity, extend lives and avert millions in healthcare costs over 10 years, researchers at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health have concluded.

With funding from Healthy Food America, researchers for Harvard’s CHOICES project localized their national, peer reviewed model to examine the potential health impact of Philadelphia’s proposed sugary drink tax. They project that the tax of 3 cents per ounce would persuade regular consumers of sugary drinks to lower their intake. As a result, the model projects that 36,000 fewer people would be obese at the end of 2025 than without the tax. When the tax reaches its full effect over the next decade, as many as 2,280 cases of diabetes a year could be prevented. The prevented cases of obesity will result in lower estimated 10-year health care costs, with projected savings averaging $200 million.*