The Pepsi Generation - Fat, Poorer and Diabetic

Who knew? Obesity and soda consumption are two sides of the same coin. A new study by UCLA's Center for Health Policy and the California Center for Public Health Advocacy (CCPHA) shows a strong correlation between soda consumption and weight. Specifically, the study's researchers found that adults who drink a soda or more a day are 27 percent more likely to be overweight than those who don't. Pop! What's my excuse? I only drink LA's finest tap water, or seltzer when I'm feeling flush. I barely reach for Coke or Pepsi. The thought that in this economy Californians are wasting their hard earned dough on a product that makes them fat and diabetic instead of drinking zero-calorie and virtually free tap water is baffling.

You can bet the bottlers are all over this with their allies the birthers, the Howard Jarvis sound-alikes, and the No to National Health Insurance crazies. Throw in the I Hate the Food Police folks, Glenn Beck, and Rush and you've got the worst party since John McCain's election night gala.

To quote Harold Goldstein, CCPHA's Executive Director, "We drink soda like water but unlike water soda serves up a whopping 17 teaspoons of sugar in every 20 ounce serving."

With the link between soda and obesity now conclusive, consider the damage being done to our children. In too many households they are being raised on the stuff. In these homes, it's not, "Get a blunt and a forty" that is making kids sick it's "Get a forty ounce Big Gulp at 7-11 or Costco's free refill and you're set for the afternoon in front of iCarly or the Disney Channel on the new flat screen."

The UCLA/CCPHA study found that 41 percent of young children (ages 2-11) are drinking at least one soda or other sugar-sweetened beverage a day. But it is adolescents (ages 12-17) who are the biggest consumers of soda with over 62 percent or two million California teens drinking one or more cans a day. That is 39 pounds of sugar a year. And as study lead author Susan Babey or any IPOD listening couch potato can confirm, "Soda's cheap, sweet, and irresistibly marketed to teens." Hell, you don't need "Dr." in front of your name to know that.

Adds CCPHA's Goldstein, "If we are serious about tackling the obesity crisis cutting back on soda consumption has to be the top priority. We cannot afford to raise another Pepsi generation."

So where do we go from here? Like yesterday's tobacco control assault on Joe Camel, tacking fees on soda couldn't happen to a nicer industry. This is already afoot in San Francisco and New York where forward thinking mayors are leading the way.

San Francisco's Mayor Gavin Newsom is nobody's fool. He knows that soda is the new tobacco and that nickel on a can fees can help the cash-strapped city start to pay the exorbitant medical bills racked up by the obese and diabetic among San Francisco's uninsured.

But the fight will get nasty, and Coke and Pepsi won't go away easily. Instead they will stand in the way and drag along the city because every day's delay means more change in their pockets. The cries that it will help our children will be drowned out (or so the bottlers hope) by industry lobbyists and PR flacks repeating the tired mantra, "Say no to the anti-American food police." Borrowing from the Yes on 8 playbook camp, they will parade out the tape of Newsom saying, "It's going to happen, whether you like it or not."

Well I like it and you should too. There should be a fee on soda and other sweetened beverages. And no, this is NOT the slippery slope to chocolate-free Tuesdays.

Whether Newsom succeeds or not the emasculated current California Governor and Legislature should follow suit and pass legislation that would levy fees on soda.

While kids throughout the state are drinking more soda than adults, the largely poor Central Valley is the soda capital of California. Leading the pack are Kings, Madera, Kern, and Imperial Counties. Ironically, these areas, my old stomping ground, in California's agricultural heartland, produce many of the state's healthy crops including almonds, citrus, carrots, grapes, kiwis, and walnuts. Yet like the residents of Steinbeck's Weedpatch it is as if the children of California's Central Valley and desert communities can't eat the fruit and vegetables their parents pick and pack.

Fees on soda make sense and with a fight coming my money is on the lean and well nourished David versus the Pepsi Generation's Goliath.

Follow Joel Epstein on Twitter: www.twitter.com/thejoelepstein

Comments

[WYHKTai-Tai]

Where did they get the info that these people surveyed drink 1 soda a day?!! haha! I think they're ly!ing.

Every time I come back to the US in the summers, I see people with a soda or giant gat0rade in their hands ALL day. ALL the time. Adults, teens and kids.

If they taxed soda they would make a fortune.

[seawolf77]

I have made this comment many times and no one has picked up on it. Take all the sugar we use for food stuff and immediately make it illegal and use it for energy. If the American public knew the truth about our energy future, they would get behind this in a second. Watching Republicans campaign for the right to be as obese as they want will be as funny as watching W defend torture. It just keeps getting sadder and sadder. Soon we will be saying "Let them die". You watch it's not far off. Tortue. Pre-emptive war. Trillion dollar deficits. How long if ever did you think it would be before you saw that.

[JulieMPHRD]

As a Registered Dietitian and consultant to the food and beverage industry I would like to comment on this article. Once again, the multi-causal issue of obesity is being given a single villain in soft drinks. According to the ABA, “This study from UCLA does not demonstrate cause and effect because, like all epidemiological studies, it looks at correlations.” In fact the compilation of science shows that soft drinks do not uniquely contribute to obesity or any other chronic disease. Approximately 56% of adults are overweight or obese in California. However, when you look closely at the study, interviews indicated 24% of respondents drink at least one soda or sweetened beverage a day and their function of being obese from this consumption is 27%. Given that, how can the authors conclude one beverage is to blame, and what are the other contributing factors that are leading to the remaining 32% of Californians becoming obese.
A review published in Nutrition Research Reviews concludes that there is little evidence from epidemiological studies that sugar-sweetened drinks are more likely than any other sources of calories to lead to obesity. By singling out soft drinks, which only provide 5.5% of our total caloric intake, we are missing the bigger picture. We need to continue to teach moderation, calorie budgeting and the importance of physical activity to consumers. Only this realistic combination of tools will truly make a dent in the epidemic of obesity.
Julie Feldman MPH RD

[wetdentist]

"tell Congress no new taxes on juice drinks and soda!"

[Schaz]

The survey determined that 62% of adults who drink 1 or more sweetened drinks per day are overweight or obese (O/O). The same survey determined that 52% of adults who drink no sweetened drinks are O/O.

Since 24% studied drink 1 or more a day, 76% don't. Let's see, that's 62% of 24% and 52% of 76%...

Flip side: 48% of adults who drink no sweetened drinks are not O/O. 38% of adults who drink 1 or more sweetened drinks per day of not O/O.

Their press release could have been "More than half obese/overweight adults non-soda drinkers".

[TakeSake]

"17 teaspoons of sugar in every 20 ounce serving"

A serving is 20 ounces? Whatever happened to 12 ounce cans?

A cup of coffee is perhaps 8 ounces. Here's an experiment: Add 7 teaspoons of sugar to a glass with 8 ounces of water and see what happens. Drink it down. Does that even seem safe?

I can't drink juices straight. I cut them with water to about 25% to be able to drink them.

[TakeSake]

My kids love this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mugicha

[LMPE]

I've never drunk the stuff.

[etreader]

A correlation is not the same as cause & effect. Not having seen the actual study, I am hesitant to jump on the "soda is evil" bandwagon. Media hype or media releases are not hard science & often misinterpret (if not directly contradict) what reported studies have found, colored by the bias of the person or entity sending out the release. I know a lot of thin, healthy people who drink sodas. Maybe it's that heavier people are more likely to have a preference for sweet tasting food?

Keep in mind the proposed soda tax is all about raising money; only secondarily about improving health. This is an easy target that may be an easier sell than raising income or property taxes.

[mlaiuppa]

Actually, they don't serve up sugar. They serve up high fructose corn syrup the equivalent of 17 teaspoons of sugar.

We have awful tap water. As bad as it is green-wise, the only water I drink is Fiji water. Huge carbon footprint. But if I only had tap water to drink I know I wouldn't drink it. I'd avoid it. I know. I've tried it several times. No amount of filtering works. I tried all of the bottled waters. I like the taste of Fiji best and I've been able to increase my water consumption by drinking it.

As for Coke and Pepsi? Never drank them. And I haven't had any HFCS since May 1. Feel a little better. But it's tedious having to make every from scratch, like cocktail sauce.

I think soda, next to tobacco, has been the legal product that has done the most harm to the health of the U.S.

[dugmaze]

"They serve up high fructose corn syrup"

Which is made using mercury.
http://www.ehjournal.net/content/8/1/2

[mlaiuppa]

Not all HFCS is made using mercury nor contains mercury. However some periodic tests have shown mercury in some products containing HFCS.

That said, it's not a food, has no redeeming nutritional value and is not a real food. I don't think we know the extent of how bad it is yet. There is some evidence that HFCS shuts off the receptors in the brain that tell us when we're full. That means when we're consuming products with HFCS, we just keep consuming. Not good. And look at the labels. It's in practically everything. Is there really any reason to put HFCS in bologna? No. Except it extends shelf life. How long does it really need to stay on the shelf? How about make packages containing half the amount? We'll shop more often. Isn't that a good thing?

[oustfan]

To me, this argument is a lot like the prop 8 supporter's argument since it all boils down to "do as I say since I know what's best".

[Sunshine1970]

Completely agree with you!

One New Years' eve, I decided I would give up pop for a year. My friends and family were laughing at me. About 1.75 years later of not drinking it, and now they're envious on how I did it. Wasn't that hard, honestly. I did have one Diet Mtn Dew on New Years' Eve last year and it was the nastiest thing ever. I can't believe I had ever been able to drink the stuff. I wish dear Husband would give up his Mtn. Dew habit. When he has temporarily given it up for a month or up to 6 months, he always said he feels better, but the "siren song" of the Dew always calls him back. :(

Have you seen that commercial where the mom comes home from grocery shopping and is highly upset that Congress is thinking of taxing pop (and other sugary drinks..I think she mentions fruit juices...) But the look to kill she gives the camera cracks me up every time. I can understand anger if there was going to be a huge tax on milk or other NUTRITIOUS items, but pop? C'mon! There are better things to get angry over.

[mlaiuppa]

Too true.

If you really want to know how nasty a soda is, let it go flat, then drink it. Suddenly it isn't so appealling any more.

Interestingly enough, if you do that with the sodas made from natural cane sugar, they taste fine, but are overly sweet. The sodas made with HFCS are just plain nasty.

As for sugar consumption, we didn't have sodas in our house when I was growing up. It was considered an expensive luxury. My parents drank coffee (or beer) so no soda for them. But we still consumed plenty of sugar in the form of KoolAid. At the time you added a cup of sugar to an envelope. Not sure how that translates in teaspoons per serving, less than 17 I'm sure. When cylamates were banned, my Dad went to the swap meet and bought all the koolaid he could. I didn't drink it after that. My parents thought they were doing us a favor providing us with cheap presweetened Koolaid. I always wondered why they were trying to poison us.

BTW don't use Equal or Splenda either. I've begun to experiment with stevia and agave.