When New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg moved to ban super-sized sodas he brought to light a huge problem in America today: Obesity. With two-thirds of Americans being overweight or obese, Bloomberg’s efforts were applauded by many. Even the iconic Coca-Cola weighed in recently declaring “obesity the issue of this generation.” While many have cited fast food as the culprit when it comes to American obesity, many overlook the role of sugar-heavy sodas.
New Messages
Soda brands spend a lot of money making their products appealing on a large scale. To combat their visible role in the obesity epidemic, Goke is launching new advertising aimed at demonstrating Coke’s willingness to work with “healthcare facilities, communities, business and government to find meaningful solutions to the complex challenge of obesity.” The lead commercial in Coke’s advertising arsenal features a two-minute video that states, “For over 125 years, we’ve been bringing people together. Today, we’d like people to come together on something that concerns all of us: Obesity.” The video then goes on to point out that Coca-Cola offers 180 low- and no-calorie beverages out of more than 650 beverage products.
Fizzy & Fattening?
Soda and other sugary drinks have found themselves demonized in the recent “war on sugar” in part due to the dangerous rate at which they are absorbed by the body. In his new book, “Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease,” Dr. Robert Lustig, one of the main combatants in the sugar wars states, “the reason to eat your sugar as whole fruit and not juice is because the fiber helps reduce the rate of absorption from the gut into the bloodstream.” Doctors and hospitals are certainly seeing the results of too much sugar. Onset diabetes, once a disease of young adults is now afflicting children ten years old and younger dooming them to a lifetime of medication and possibly needles.
Is Soda a Scapegoat
According to an article on WebMD, the past six months has produced dozens of studies on the health impact of consuming sugar-laden beverages. Many of these studies have been published in medical journals with some suggesting a relationship between these popular beverages and health risks and others not. Epidemiologist Hannah Gardener, PhD of the University of Miami, was overwhelmed by the media attention a study she spearheaded received. The early findings showed a 48 percent increase in risk of heart attack and stroke among those who drank diet soda daily. The story was picked up by all three major networks and in most major newspapers. According to Dr. Gardener, sugar isn’t the only danger; artificial sweeteners pose risks as well.
The Bottom Line
While sugar may, in fact, be bad for you, taken in quantities the same is true for diet soda and drink. According to medical professionals, the best course of action is, like everything, moderation. Like so many things (meat, eggs, fat, carbs) your system will thank you for going easy on the soda. Instead of ordering that 48-ounce coke with every meal, limit yourself to the smallest size at only one meal every so often.
One of the best ways for individuals to fight America’s obesity epidemic is to cut back on those big gulps. Doctors and researchers believe there are any number of ways to reduce or eliminate sugar in your body and studies show that your best bet is to heed every one of them.
– Tracy Rentz writes for healthcare blogs. Interested in nutrition and public health? You may want to consider advanced health degrees such as those offered at University of Southern California and John Hopkins University
