Can you pop open the idea of drinking healthier? States across the nation are showing trends on taxing sodas shows a recent news article. Vermont started taxing sugary drinks in July, hoping to help the state close a million dollar gap between revenue and spending. Also other states and cities have jumped on the soda tax bus including Illinois in 2015 and Berkeley, California. Hospitals in San Francisco have taken out sugary juice drinks for kids, and just a month ago San Antonio started a campaign against sugary beverages. Studies show Latino kids drink more sugary beverages, so helping them think about drinking more water and consuming less sugary beverages may be a start in the right direction. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that 30.9% of Latinos drink ...
Over the years there has been multiple studies that show the links of consuming sugary drinks to healthcare problems, such as diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease and cancers. A comprehensive report combined patterns of beverage consumption within 51 countries over 30 years with availability and consumption of sugar in 187 countries. This study revealed the first-ever global report on the effect of sugar-sweetened beverages on death rates. Studies showed that the United States was ranked second for death rates associated with sugary beverages. Latino kids drink more soda's and sugary beverages than their non-white peers and are even more likely to be affected. In fact, the report revealed that chronic disease was attributed to sugary beverages more in younger ...
A recent study shows that two key factors -- taste and choice -- are instrumental in improving school childrens' lunchtime nutritional choices. You need both, the researchers found. Absent tasty food, choice alone is doomed to fail.The study was published in the March 2015 issue of JAMA Pediatrics. When children exercise their small measure of independence in the school lunch line, they do respond well to choice, according to the study. So giving kids a range of options for fruits and vegetables -- and presenting the healthiest options in attractive ways -- prompts these tough customers to pick them more often. But when it comes to getting kids to not just pick but actually eat more fruits and vegetables over the long haul, there's no substitute for a tasty food, the ...
According to a recent article, McDonald's has reported a slight decrease in consumption of soda in happy meals. In 2013 McDonald's joined the Alliance for A Healthier Generation to commit to having healthier options in kids meals and removing soda marketing to kids menus. Of the five commitments, McDonald's has already shown progress in taking soda off the kids menu as numbers of soda consumption has dropped from 56%. All the while, the choice of water, juice or milk rose in that same year to 37%. Plus, the study shows that kids are taking more fruit in their happy meals. This progress is just one of the five commitments McDonald has made and will continue to track until all goals are met by 2020. Another goal they have set in the commitments, is to change children's ...
According to a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, a national penny-per-ounce excise tax on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) “could substantially reduce body mass index (BMI) and healthcare expenditures and increase healthy life expectancy.” Researchers estimated that the tax would reduce SSB consumption by 20 percent and mean BMI by 0.16 units among youth and 0.08 units among adults. They also estimate the tax would result in $23.6 billion in healthcare cost savings, generate $12.6 billion in annual revenue, and gain 871,000 quality-adjusted life years. Latinos would likely benefit substantially from a nationwide soda tax, considering they are more likely to drink sodas, be overweight/obese and not have adequate health care. Read the full SSB tax ...
With 3 city proposals to reduce resident’s consumption of sugary drinks, sugary drinks have been a hot issue in San Francisco (15.1% Latino) recently. San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center has announced that it will no longer advertise, sell or provide sugar-sweetened beverages. This applies to vending machines, gift shops, cafeterias, patient meals and food trucks. For example, juice in children’s meals must now be 100% fruit juice. Sugar-sweetened beverages are linked to obesity, diabetes and other chronic diseases. Latino children are disproportionately burdened by advertisements of sugar-sweetened beverages and face disproportionate rates of obesity and diabetes. 13.2% of Latino infants and 47.0% of Latino toddlers were fed sweetened fruit-flavored ...
In a study published in the International Journal of Obesity, scientists compared data on contemporary children with those of the 1980's. They discovered that the rise in obesity among very young children is predominantly in families where the parents are obese. Toddlers as a whole have not changed. By contrast, obesity among adolescents has not been restricted to those with obese parents, but has occurred across the entire age group. The data suggests that parenting is the primary determinant of obesity in early years, whereas peer influence plays a larger role later on. Full Article ...
The University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) is the only university in the UC system exclusively focused on health science and includes two hospitals. As the second largest employer in San Francisco, UCSF feels a close tie to the bay area community, where Latinos make up 23% of residents. UCSF recently announced a new way they will be setting a healthy example on campus and off. Starting July 1, UCSF will start phasing in a program to sell only zero-calorie beverages or non-sweetened drinks with nutritional value, such as milk and 100 percent juice, and will phase out the sale of sugar-sweetened beverages in its onsite cafeterias and food vendors, vending machines and retail locations. According to research assessed by the UCSF-led SugarScience project, Americans ...
Researchers in California found rates of overweight and obesity among children have declined since the state adopted new laws in the past 10 years. In the five years after the start of these statewide policy changes, trends in overweight/obesity leveled off among fifth-grade students at public schools in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods and declined in advantaged neighborhoods, according to the study led by researchers at San Francisco State University. 52% of a public school students in California are Latino. The researchers looked at the effect of two state laws that restricted competitive food and beverages sold alongside meal programs in public schools. This study is released at a time when new federal school lunch guidelines that similarly limit competitive ...
