Sugary drink taxes are taking out the fizz across the nation. From Washington, D.C., to Berkeley, Calif., sugary drink taxes are raising the price of soda, tea, and energy drinks, with the hope that people will buy fewer taxed drinks. These drinks do not contribute to good health, according to a Salud America! research review. But are shoppers really buying fewer sugary drinks as a result? A series of studies explores this question.
How Sugary Drink Taxes Affect Purchases
A new study from Mathematica Policy Research and others indicates that sugary drink taxes can reduce purchases of sugary drinks. Researchers examined the impact of taxes in four cities: Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, and Oakland. They compared changes in household monthly purchases to nearby cities ...
Amid mounting health concerns over teen vaping, the U.S. Congress voted on Dec. 19, 2019, to raise the purchasing age for all tobacco products—including e-cigarettes—from 18 to 21, the New York Times reports. President Trump is expected to sign the measure on Dec. 20, 2019. Experts say raising the purchasing age will reduce the number of people who begin smoking at very young age. Nearly 9 out of 10 smokers started smoking by age 18. The rule is also a response to deadly health concerns over teen vaping. The CDC announced in December 2019 that 54 people died and 2,506 cases of lung-related illnesses had been reported due to vaping. “Raising the tobacco age to 21 is a positive step, but it is not a substitute for prohibiting the flavored e-cigarettes that are luring ...
Sugary drink taxes are bubbling up across the nation. From Philadelphia to Berkeley, Calif., these sugary drink taxes are having an intended benefit—reducing consumption of bad-for-health sugary drinks and driving up water sales. But where is the tax money going? Let's look at Washington, D.C. (11.3% Latino), which recently added a sugary drink tax and is already considering a stronger one, and whether the revenue is benefiting health.
New Sugary Drink Sales Tax in D.C.
D.C. leaders recently bumped up the local sales tax from 6% to 8% on drinks with natural or artificial sweeteners that contain less than 100% juice or at least 50% milk bought in stores. City council member Mary Cheh pushed for the tax. She moved to insert this tax in the city’s $15.5 billion 2020 ...
As a white woman living in Boston who grew up all around the world, privileged and well-educated, Alison Corcoran was a stranger to injustice and health inequity. “I’ve never been denied anything,” Corcoran told Salud America!. That all changed 11 years ago when she became a foster parent to her African American son.
Experiencing Health Inequity and Bias First-Hand
When Corcoran’s son joined the family, he was only in the first grade. During the family transition meetings, his social worker had told her: “Make sure you take him to the dentist soon – I don’t think he has ever gone.” So Corcoran took him to the family dentist for a cleaning and exam. During the appointment, it was no surprise that her son had multiple cavities. Then, it came time to visit ...
Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez and Salud America! have won three Fall 2019 Digital Health Awards for promoting health action! Digital Health Awards are given each spring and fall to recognize the world’s best digital health resources. The awards are given by the Health Information Resource Center. The Center is a national clearinghouse for professionals who work in consumer health fields. Here are the Salud America! award recipients: Bronze, Fall 2019 Digital Health Award, Web-Based Digital Health—Digital Content Curation, Salud America! Health Website, featuring the work of Dr. Ramirez and digital content curators Josh McCormack, Amanda Merck, Stacy Cantu, and Pramod Sukumaran.
Bronze, Fall 2019 Digital Health Award, Digital Health Media—Audio, The Salud Talks Podcast by ...
Nine-thousand miles. That's nearly the number Gabe Canales, founder of Blue Cure—a prostate cancer support and awareness group—traveled earlier this year. He took this journey to advocate for something he believes is too essential to overlook: Promoting men's health. Before beginning this advocacy road trip, Canales struggled with his own life-changing, adverse health experience — in 2010, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. "I really wasn't concerned at all with my health or other men's health before then," Canales said. "Sadly, it sometimes takes a person getting sick for them to look at their own health. There were some other factors after that led me to be very driven to do something for men's health issues overall."
A Cancer Diagnosis Too Soon
At 35 years old, ...
In October 2019, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney signed a new law that requires restaurants to make healthy drinks the default drink in kid's meals, over sugary sodas. Kid's meals now will offer a choice of water, nonfat/low-fat milk, or 100% juice. Sugary drinks are not banned. Instead, customers must specifically request them. “Ensuring that these healthy beverage options are available to families is a step in the right direction toward the health and well-being of our city’s children,” said City Council Member Blondell Reynolds Brown, who introduced the law, in a statement.
Why Does Philadelphia Need Healthier Kid's Meals?
About 66% of American children drink at least one sugary beverage a day. Sugary drink consumption contributes to obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular ...
Nearly 2 of 3 U.S. children's drinks sold in 2018 were unhealthy fruit drinks and flavored waters with added sugars and/or diet sweeteners, according to Children’s Drink FACTS 2019, a new report from the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity. In fact, none of the 34 top-selling children's sugary drinks met expert recommendations for healthy drinks for children. These unhealthy drink sales complicate health equity for Latino and black children, who are targeted more with sugary drink marketing and have higher rates of sugary drink consumption. They face obesity, higher rates of cavities (57% of all Latino kids have cavities), and other health conditions as a result. "Beverage companies have said they want to be part of the solution to childhood obesity, but they continue to ...
Latino kids have higher childhood obesity rates than their peers at nearly all age groups, according to a new report. For example, the newest data show Latino kids ages 10-17 have higher obesity rates (19%) than their white (11.8%) and Asian (7.3%) peers. They also have higher rates than the nation (15.3%), but lower rates than black kids (22.2%). The new stats are part of a bigger report, the State of Childhood Obesity: Helping All Children Grow up Healthy from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). It highlights big data on childhood obesity, with policies and stories to drive change. “These new data show that this challenge touches the lives of far too many children in this country, and that Black and Hispanic youth are still at greater risk than their White and Asian ...
