14 DAY TRIAL // Placing an emphasis on the importance of a healthy diet in our lives, US officials announced a new campaign aimed at reducing the consumption of soda and other sugary drinks is to launch this October.
Dubbed “Life’s sweeter with fewer sugary drinks,” the campaign will take place in several major cities to reduce rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and other health problems.
Sugary drinks reportedly account for half of all added sugars consumed by Americans. The campaign’s goal is to decrease average consumption of sugary drinks to roughly 3 cans per person per week by 2020.
A recommendation from the American Heart Association states that people should limit their intake of sugary drinks to about 450 calories per week, or about three 12-ounce cans. Average consumption is now more than twice that.
“The enormous health and economic benefits that would result from drinking less ‘liquid candy’ will be supported by a broad cross-section of America,” said CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson, Ph.D. “Not since the anti-tobacco campaigns has there been a product so worthy of a national health campaign.”
The campaign also encourages employers, hospitals, and government agencies to adopt policies that would reduce soda consumption. Besides carbonated soda, the campaign targets fruit-flavored beverages with little or no juice, sweetened iced teas, lemonades, energy drinks, and so-called sports drinks such as Gatorade.
According to health officials, each additional sugary drink consumed per day, according to one study, increases the likelihood that a child will become obese by about 60 percent. A reason that sugary drinks are conducive to obesity is that the calories in beverages aren’t as satiating as solid foods.
“With new scientific evidence suggesting that drinking more than one sugar-sweetened beverage per day raises the risk of high blood pressure, it’s imperative that we do more to help communities kick the soda habit,” said Rachel Johnson, Ph.D., vice chair of the American Heart Association’s nutrition committee and the Bickford Green and Gold Professor of Nutrition at the University of Vermont.