There’s been another major breakthrough in the fight against big soda here in the United States. For years, the soda industry lobby has successfully beat back legislation designed to regulate the amount of sugar in its products and the information that reaches the public about its dangerous health effects. Of course, that’s no surprise: soda consumption is at the heart of the obesity crisis in the United States, and is responsible for countless deaths at the hands of obesity-related diseases like Type 2 diabetes. Lobbying efforts at federal, state, and even local levels, however, have been widely successful in foreclosing on attempts to simply give consumers a fair shake in the face of an enormously powerful industry.
California on the frontlines in the push for rational sugar policy
Nowhere is the battle more contentious than in California, where big soda spends millions every year beating back soda taxes and other forms of regulation. After months of fighting, however, the California state legislature dealt the industry a significant blow in June, when it pushed through a bill that would force producers to place warning labels on sugary drinks.
In a vote of 21 to 11, lawmakers demanded that soda companies put such labels on the front of all products containing 75 calories or more per 12 fluid ounces. The type would be in bold, separate from any other text on cans and bottles; in other words, a stern warning for casual consumers about the risks of so much sugar. Retailers offering fountain drinks would be similarly required to post warnings for consumers.1
A powerful opposition from Big Soda
The American Beverage Association (ABA) industry group struck back as usual against the effort to close in on its unbridled profits, citing a federal appeals case that blocked a similar bill in San Francisco in January. “America’s beverage companies fully support efforts to provide consumers with accurate information on our products, but there are more effective ways to do this without using misleading labels which have been previously struck down by courts in California,” said one spokesperson for the organization.2
What he did not mention was that the group has spent $230,000 in California alone since the start of 2019 in its efforts to block this and other proposals. The truth is, the ABA and others like it have been largely successful in shooting down any effort at state oversight in California. Even the fight for this bill isn’t finished, as it now heads to the state assembly for a final vote.
“We are not removing the product from the shelves,” said State Senator Bill Monning. “We are informing choice. It’s a public right to know.”
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Dr. Rosmy Barrios, MD is an aesthetic medicine specialist whose work focuses on patients who are treated for obesity, metabolic syndrome, and other weight-related issues through nutritional analysis, keto diet programs, and supporting medications.
- California Pushes for Cigarette-Like Warning Labels on Soda - July 1, 2019
- Is a Slowdown in Australia's Sugar Consumption a Sign of More to Come? - June 24, 2019
- Groundbreaking Study Says the Sugar Rush Doesn't Exist - June 12, 2019
