Health Advocacy Coalition Joins ACS Call for Surgeon General Report on Soft Drinks
Suggesting that soft drinks are associated with “addictive mechanisms,” a
coalition of nearly 100 federal, state and local public health organizations and
individuals have added their voices to the American Cancer Society Cancer
Action Network’s, urging the U.S. Surgeon General to “prepare a Report on the
health effects of sugary drinks and to issue a Call to Action so spur national
efforts to reduce sugary drink consumption.” Further details on the Network’s
letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen
Sebelius appear in Issue 446 of this Update.
Citing risks to young people’s health and national security interests, the
latest correspondence claims that sugary drinks “have become a routine,
daily beverage for tens of millions of Americans” and they are “aggressively
marketed, especially to young consumers and minorities, in both traditional
and digital media, and in event sponsorships.” The July 19, 2012, letter
suggests that a Surgeon General report “could address the specific ingredients
of sugary drinks: the biology, pharmacology, and physiological effects of
sugars; addictive mechanisms associated with sugar use or other ingredients
contained in sugary drinks; epidemiological data on consumption of these
products and their health-damaging effects including obesity; trends in
consumption for all age groups; and the gender, racial, and ethnic disparities
in the effects of sugary drink consumption on health.”
Signatories to the letter include the American Diabetes Association, American
Heart Association, Center for Food Safety, Center for Science in the Public
Interest, Colorado Springs School District 11, Consumer Federation of
America, National Congress of Black Women, Inc., National Hispanic Medical
Association, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene,
Prevention Institute, Tennessee Obesity Taskforce, The Praxis Project, Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, Former U.S. Assistant Surgeon
General Andrew Bremer, Robert Lustig, Marion Nestle, and Walter Willett.
