by Share On Social!
How can teens combat the millions of dollars spent on advertising every year from the beverage companies?
How about a bit of their own media. One out of every 4 children in Howard County (HoCo) is obese or overweight.
Maryland teens are sick of this and are telling big soda to get the hint. They know that sugary beverages like soda and Gatorade are linked to higher risks for heart disease, obesity, and diabetes, and they are not afraid to spread this news to friends, family, and everyone through YouTube and social media.
Involved with the Horizon Foundation, a non-profit whose mission is to improve the health and wellness of people who live or work in Howard County, Maryland, the Better Choices Coalition is a group of organizations, and concerned citizens leading an effort to help guide parents, youth, and everyone in the county to choose the healthy beverage option.
The Better Choices Coalition of Howard County provides resources to help with efforts to reduce sugary drink consumption, including newsletter content, posters, handouts, educational activities, website widgets, videos and more.
Members of one organization in the coalition can also learn about and connect to other member organizations.
The Better Choices Coalition also encourages members to learn about drinking healthier options by offering better drink choices and meetings and events, change what is sold in vending machines, and learn about the over 300 better beverage choices that are available on the market today.
As part of the Coalition, the HoCo Unsweetened campaign was created, creating videos that pertain to kids, parents, teens and local citizens.
Teens within the videos are making their statement clear to big soda, asking them to promote the good stuff and decrease the sugar.
To see more videos from the campaign and the teens, click here or to learn more about the movement to stomp out sugary beverages, click here.
By The Numbers
74
percent
of Latino kids have had a sugary drink by age 2 (vs. 45% of white kids)
