A study allegedly linking daily sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption to earlier menarche has raised concerns about the long-term implications for breast cancer risk. J.L. Carwile, et al., “Sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and age at menarche in a prospective study of US girls,” Human Reproduction, January 2015. Relying on dietary questionnaires completed by 5,583 girls ages 9 to 14 before their first menses, researchers with the Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital reported “more frequent SSB consumption predicted a higher rate of reaching menarche” during five years of follow-up. After controlling for birth weight, maternal age at menarche, physical activity, and other factors, the study claims that girls who consumed more than 1.5 servings of sugar-sweetened soda, non-carbonated fruit drinks or iced tea per day (i) were 26 percent “more likely to reach menarche in the next month relative to girls who reported consuming [less than] 2 servings of…
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Shook, Hardy & Bacon Agribusiness & Food Safety Co-Chair Madeleine McDonough was quoted in two January 2, 2015, Law360 articles about various legal, legislative and regulatory issues expected to affect food and beverage manufacturers in the new year. Given the September 2014 convictions of former Peanut Corp. of America owner Stewart Parnell and two other company executives on criminal charges stemming from a 2008-2009 Salmonella outbreak that sickened hundreds of people nationwide and was linked to nine deaths, McDonough speculated that similar misdemeanor prosecutions under the Park Doctrine could be on the rise. “People are really watching all of the fallout from the Parnell situation and trying to keep that in mind in making sure they have appropriate procedures internally,” McDonough told Law360. Under the Park Doctrine, food and drug company executives can be criminally prosecuted for product safety violations without any proof that the executives had any specific knowledge or…
The Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity has published Sugary Drink FACTS 2014, a report funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that targets trends in beverage advertising to children. Claiming that companies spent $866 million on advertising for sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs) in 2013, the report argues that even though youth-oriented TV programs and websites showed fewer SSB ads in 2013 than in 2010, the advertising available “is still overwhelmingly for unhealthy drinks.” The authors point out that as SSB advertising on children’s websites declined by 72 percent, “the popularity of energy drinks and regular soda brands on social media increased exponentially from 2011 to 2014.” According to the report, energy drink and regular soda brands now represent 84 percent of the 300 million Facebook likes for the brands included in the analysis, 89 percent of 11 million Twitter followers, and 95 percent of 1.8 billion YouTube views. In…
Calling Berkeley, California, voters’ recent passage of a 1-cent-per-ounce tax on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) a “victory for the health of Americans,” Australia’s Rethink Sugary Drink Campaign is urging state and local governments to enact comparable measures. The initiative is a partnership among the groups Cancer Council Australia, Diabetes Australia and Heart Foundation (Victoria). “Australia is among the top 10 countries for per capita consumption of soft drinks,” Cancer Council Australia’s Craig Sinclair said. “Research shows that a retail price increase of around 20 percent would be the most effective in reducing the consumption of these sugar-laden drinks.” The Campaign asserts that SSB consumption is linked to a variety of weight-related health issues and also champions state and local regulations to (i) limit children’s exposure to SSB marketing; (ii) restrict the sale of SSBs in primary and secondary schools; and (iii) reduce the availability of SSB sales in workplaces, government offices, health…
According to press reports, New York Assemblyman Karim Camara (D-Brooklyn) announced this week that he intends to propose legislation requiring sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) to carry labels cautioning that their consumption contributes to “obesity, diabetes and tooth decay.” He introduced a similar bill (A10172) in August 2014, but no action was apparently taken on that initiative. “We can’t sit back and pretend that sugary drinks aren’t harmful to people,” Camara was quoted as saying. “The research is clear—too much sugar leads to health problems such as obesity and diabetes.” A California Assembly committee defeated like-minded legislation earlier in 2014. More details about that proposal appear in Issue 527 of this Update. See The New York Post, November 13, 2014. Issue 545
Voters in Berkeley, California, have passed a 1-cent per-ounce tax on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and the added-calorie sweeteners used to make them. Revised by court order to reference “sugar-sweetened beverages” as opposed to “high-calorie, sugary drinks,” the ballot measure garnered 75 percent approval to make Berkeley the first city in the nation to adopt a soda tax. The new tax will apparently cover (i) SSBs distributed to stores and restaurants and (ii) sweeteners distributed to restaurants and stores “where they are used to make sugar-sweetened beverages for customers.” Exempted from taxation are sweeteners distributed to stores for direct sale to consumers as well as milk-based beverages, baby formula, alcoholic beverages, medical formulations, and fruit and vegetable juices that do not contain added-calorie sweeteners. Under the new rules, added-calorie sweeteners include sucrose, fructose, glucose, and high-fructose corn syrup, but not “natural, concentrated, or reconstituted fruit or vegetable juice or any combination thereof.”…
A recent study has purportedly linked sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption to accelerated cell aging, estimating that “daily consumption of a 20-ounce soda was associated with 4.6 years of additional biological aging.” Cindy Leung, et al., “Soda and Cell Aging: Associations Between Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption and Leukocyte Telomere Length in Healthy Adults From the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys," American Journal of Public Health, October 2014. University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) researchers apparently analyzed stored DNA from more than 5,000 adults enrolled in the 1999-2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, which included 24-hour dietary recall assessments. According to a UCSF press release, the study authors reported that “telomeres—the protective units of DNA that cap the ends of chromosomes in cells—were shorter in the white blood cells of survey participants who reported drinking more soda.” Although this effect paralleled the telomere shortening allegedly seen in smokers, the consumption of…
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has released a report claiming that candy, energy bars, chips, and cookies constitute 90 percent of foods marketed in store checkout lanes, while sugar-sweetened beverages constitute 60 percent of the beverage options. According to the study, which examined 30 retailers in the Washington, D.C., area, 86 percent of non-grocery retailers displayed foods and/or beverages in checkout aisles, but only one food store abstained from marketing foods or beverages at the point of sale. In addition, the one retailer with a designated “family-friendly” aisle still marketed allegedly unhealthy foods and beverages in amounts and percentages similar to those found in regular checkout lanes. Arguing that such practices promote obesity, the consumer watchdog is urging retailers to set “nutrition standards for their checkout offerings” by limiting the amount of calories, saturated and trans fats, added sugars, and sodium in food and beverage options. “In…
A California state court has adjusted the language in the soft drink tax on the November 2014 ballot by replacing “high-calorie, sugary drink” with “sugar-sweetened beverages” to clarify the proposed tax and to conform with election codes. Johnson v. Numainville, No. RG14786763 (Cal. Super. Ct., Alameda Cty., order entered September 2, 2014). Agreeing with the two Berkeley residents who filed the lawsuit, the court found that “the ballot question here asking whether a tax should be imposed on ‘high-calorie, sugary drinks’ is likewise a form of advocacy and therefore not impartial. This phrase suggests that the tax will be limited to certain beverages that contain more than the average calories and too much sugar; in other words, beverages that most people would find to be unhealthy.” The court also found issue with the City Attorney’s Impartial Analysis of the measure, which described it as a tax on “high-calorie, low nutrition”…
California-based ChangeLab Solutions, an interdisciplinary public health advocacy group focused on policy reform, is holding a September 24, 2014, Webinar to discuss the potential impact of mandatory warning labels on sugar-sweetened beverages in reducing the rates of youth and adult obesity and diabetes. Webinar panelists will reportedly discuss lessons learned from failed California legislation (S.B. 1000) that would have required such warnings on SSBs, resources for driving similar strategies at the state and local level, and SSB warnings’ impact on the health of communities of color. Program faculty will include a senior staff attorney at ChangeLab Solutions, the executive directors of the California Center for Public Health Advocacy and Latino Coalition for a Healthy California, and the director of health promotion policy at Center for Science in the Public Interest. To learn more about the event, please click here. Issue 535
