PI op-ed about Big Soda in the San Francisco Chronicle

Our new op-ed calls out the beverage industry for blaming parents—and avoiding its own responsibility—for kids’ overconsumption of soda.
Read the op-ed
San Francisco Chronicle
Open Forum: Big Soda remains Sacramento’s beverage of choice
By Leslie Mikkelsen, July 14, 2019

Soda companies have one job to do: Sell more soda, whatever the cost to public health. So it’s no surprise that they have worked hard to defeat or delay legislation designed to curb the marketing and consumption of sugary drinks in California.

What is surprising is that the beverage industry was so successful at killing common-sense public health protections in a state that was among the first to recognize the risks of soda and ban it from schools. The industry bottled up no fewer than five such measures in Sacramento this legislative session.

Bills to tax sugary drinks, put warning labels on them, keep them out of checkout lanes, cap serving sizes and limit discounts were all stopped or stalled.
"Soda companies have one job to do: Sell more soda, whatever the cost to public health."
Some California lawmakers have even echoed the American Beverage Association’s talking point blaming families instead of soda companies for children’s choices. This notion simply doesn’t reflect what we know about sugary drinks, marketing and health in 2019.

When my mom was growing up in the 1940s, soda was a rare treat. By the time I began my career as a public health nutritionist in the late 1980s, however, beverage companies were well on their way to turning sugary drinks into an everyday habit. Soda was ubiquitous in grocery and corner stores, with snazzy signs and logos taking over storefronts; soda vending machines were infiltrating high schools; and television ads linked soda with fun and friendship.

Today, a decade after the state ended soda sales in public schools, parents still face formidable odds in discouraging their children from consuming sugary beverages. The industry bombards kids with ads for soda and other sugary drinks everywhere they go. Even the most vigilant parents can’t shield their children entirely — especially when beverage companies go out of their way to market to children behind their parents’ backs through social-networking sites and gaming apps.

Latino and African American communities have long been singled out by the beverage industry for particularly aggressive marketing. This strategy is aided by the fact that California’s communities of color are less likely to have access to safe, affordable drinking water and other healthy alternatives.

The result is that beverage companies have gotten richer as the rest of us — especially our children — have gotten sicker. U.S. consumption of sugary drinks more than doubled from 1977 to 2001, making such beverages the primary source of added sugars in our diets. That sugar fuels chronic health conditions such as Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and tooth decay. Since the early 2000s, the prevalence of Type 2 diabetes in California has increased 34% with families living in poverty twice as likely to develop the disease.

When confronted with these grim statistics, the beverage industry tries to shift the conversation to consumer choice and blame parents for kids’ sugary drink consumption. But these arguments cleverly leave out the industry itself. Why do beverage companies go to such great lengths and enormous expense to market soda to children? For one reason: It works.

Next time the soda industry tells lawmakers that parents are to blame for their kids’ overconsumption of sugary drinks, let’s hope they remember it’s their job to protect the health and well-being of all Californians. That means soda taxes, health warnings, smaller portion sizes and other common-sense policies that help the communities contending with a powerful industry that doesn’t have their best interests at heart.

Leslie Mikkelsen is a registered dietitian and managing director of the Oakland-based nonprofit Prevention Institute.

Learn more by watching We’re Not Buying It: Stop Junk Food Marketing to Kids.

Photo credit: "Soda Pop" by JeepersMedia is licensed under CC BY 2.0 

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