Breaking News: Four Cities All Vote in Favor of Soda Tax



Voters chose health in California and Boulder, where measures were passed on November 8th, 2016 to tax sugary beverages in hopes to decrease high rates of chronic disease and fund more public health programs. Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart Association said, "From sports drinks to sodas to fruit-flavored drinks, today’s children are drinking their age in these sugary drinks each week. Reducing consumption will improve rates of diabetes, heart disease and tooth decay." In California, support for soda taxes was reported in all cities. San Francisco had support with 62% of votes, Albany with 71%, and Oakland came out with 61% of support for votes to pass a penny-per-ounce soda tax. While measures in Boulder, Colorado, were also supported with over 54 % of voters leading the ...

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Four Cities Will Vote About Sugary Beverage Taxes



November 8th, 2016 is an important day for health advocates and the beverage industry alike as voters line up in four cities to decide on taxing sugary beverages. Sugary beverages have been tested by various researchers and found to be linked to higher risks for heart disease, type two diabetes and more in those who consume these beverages daily and now not only are health organizations like the American Heart Association supporting sugary beverage taxes, but also wealthy health advocates like Michael Bloomberg and Laura and John Arnold. On the other hand, the beverage industries are also fighting back against the taxes, spending over thirty million to lobby and campaign against these tax initiatives. As rising rates of obesity take over the nation, many cities are educating ...

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Healthy Kingsport Initiative Keeps Kids Healthy & Hydrated



TimeNews  recently reported about how water bottles, hydrations stations, morning miles and a new playground are all a part of a bigger movement to get kids healthy in Sullivan County, Tenn where over 72.9% of adults are overweight or obese. A new campaign that works with the schools is taking root and helping to bring clean and easily accessible hydration stations for students to drink more water. called the Live Sugar Freed campaign is a local health and community leader effort to combat the high rates of type 2 diabetes and obesity in the Tri-Cities regions. The campaign is all about water over sugary beverages, 17, 200 bottles 37 water bottle refilling stations. The campaign, called the Live Sugar Freed campaign, is a local health and community leader effort to combat the ...

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New Study: Two Sugary or Artificially-Sweetened Drinks A Day Increase Diabetes Risk



Sugary beverages like soda, energy drinks, sweetened teas, lemonades, coffees and fruit juices are known to be an unhealthy daily drink and some say they are becoming the next big tobacco, as researchers continually find their link to elevated chronic health risks. Now new study put on by researchers at the Karolinska Institute have found that not only do sweetened beverages heighten the risk for diabetes, but also artificially-sweetened beverages had similar risks in study results. In fact, higher consumption for these two types of drinks increased a higher risk for type 2 diabetes by 20%. The researchers reviewed over 2,800 Swedish adults compared to adults with diabetes cases, and all results were adjusted for various measures. The results found that possible direct adverse ...

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Australia Estimates Implementing a Soda Tax Would Achieve A 14 Times Return on Health Care Expenditures



Many countries are talking more about reducing sugary beverage consumption after the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on October 11th, 2016 it's suggestion to tax all sugary drinks by 20 percent to help reduce consumption. Now talks in Australia have bubbled up around reducing sugary drink consumption, as The Green Party campaigned announced a policy to tax sugary drinks at the recent federal election, reports Foodtank. The country currently stands at a 63% rate of obese or overweight adults and a 27% rate of children that are overweight or obese. The estimated billions in money saved on health care expenditures could benefit the direct cost of overweight and obesity expenditures. A longitudinal study also showed, that over $15.8 billion dollars are spent ...

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Portugal Plans Sugar Tax on Sodas



After the World Health Organization suggested a 20% tax on sugary beverages for all countries, Portugal announced three days later a plan for a sugar tax on soft drinks for 2017, estimated to raise 80 million euros for public health services. Sugary drinks other than sodas like flavored milks or fruit juices will not be taxed, however all sodas are planned to be taxed that have a sugar content above 80 grams per litre. Back in November 2015, Portugal's center-right government tried to introduce a tax on sugar, drinks and foods that contained high amounts of sugars or too much salts but the efforts fell unnoticed. Trying again the political battles will fuel out the battle to determine the sugar tax and ultimately impact the future health of their country. Continued ...

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New Zealand Doctors Want To End Sales of Sugary Drinks



Since the recent announcement from the World Health Organization (WHO) that all countries should implement a 20 percent soda tax to help reduce worldwide health risks linked to sugary drink consumption, many countries and health advocate groups have started talking about various new sugary drink reduction policy initiatives. Now a group of Doctors, researchers, and public health advocates have joined together with the goal of eliminating sugary drinks from New Zealand by 2025. The group, FIZZ, which stands for "Fighting Sugar in Softdrinks", states on their website their justification in ending sales of sodas is due to the tide of evidence that implicates consumption of sugary drinks with common health risks like type-2 diabetes, rotten teeth gout, and cardiovascular ...

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New Study Suggests Parents Watch What They Drink In Front of Kids



Young children often look to their parents for guidance in many things, but a new study now suggests that what a parent drinks in front of their child could make a major impact on their child's health. The study, reported on by The Guardian, looked at four-to-eight-year-olds whose parents drank sweet drinks. Kids whose parents drank fizzy drinks were 192% more likely to drink the same beverages as their parents than other kids their age, 115% more likely to drink fruit juices if their parents did, and 529% to drink smoothies if their parents drank smoothies. Sugary beverages like sodas, sports drinks, juices and other sweetened beverages have been linked to higher rates of diabetes, tooth decay, and other major health risks.Latino kids ages zero to five is higher than the overall ...

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Join the “Less Soda” Challenge!


hand holding soda can pouring a crazy amount of sugar in metaphor of sugar content of a refresh drink

Why do sodas and other sugary drinks like sweetened coffees, teas, and energy drinks make us more thirsty and want more? We need hydration and water is they key to healthy hydration. Drinking more water and less sugary beverages can help our bodies in numerous ways shows various studies. So now what should we do? How can we fight the urge to sip on our favorite sweet drink? Join the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and FoodStand as they challenge you to drink "Less Soda". The Foodstand app is free to download and you can get great tips, shopping lists, recipes and more to help you kick the can or the sweet beverage of your choice! Foodstand also helps people build healthier eating habits through community-powered challenges primarily focused on eating less ...

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