Is Big Soda Misleading Latino Teens?

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According to a recent editorial by the Alameda County Public Health Department’s Nutrition Services Director, Diane Woloshin, MS, RD, while overall soda consumption has gone down among the general population, one key demographic—minority teens (i.e. Latino and African American youth) continue to be a prime target for the beverage industry.

If trends continue, Woloshin believes that half of Latino and African American children will develop diabetes at some point in their lifetime.

“For Big Soda, the bottom line is profit,” Woloshin writes. “For the youth they are targeting, it’s a matter of life and death.”

The Alameda County Public Health Department is part of the Open Truth Campaign, a public health marketing campaign led by youth, which seeks to inform the same communities targeted by the beverage industry, of the serious health consequences like obesity, tooth decay, and diabetes, associated with soda consumption.