Last spring, after it was reported that Clinton said she supported a tax on sweetened drinks in Philadelphia, a Coke executive fired off an email to a Clinton aide that read: "Really? After all we've done. And emails released from WikiLeaks' hack of Hillary Clinton's campaign staff suggest that Coke was hoping for something in return. Records show that Coca-Cola has given $5 million to $10 million to the Clinton Foundation. In the meantime, the beverage industry has also been laying the groundwork for what might come in a future White House administration. For instance, in 2012, Coke gave $100,000 for Live Empowered, a diabetes awareness and prevention initiative aimed at African-Americans. In this statement, the ADA explains that grants from Coca-Cola have supported community education and outreach projects. The American Diabetes Association has also supported state and local taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages.
And after the city of Philadelphia passed its tax, the AHA produced this video calling on other cities to follow Philly's lead. "Our volunteers and staff are in every state capitol doubling-down against Big Soda," she wrote. It's clear that sponsorship from Coke and Pepsi has not stopped the American Heart Association from advocating for the passage of taxes on sugary drinks.Įarlier this year Nancy Brown, the CEO of the American Heart Association, wrote a piece in The Huffington Post titled Dear Big Soda: It's Time for a Change. in a position to influence our policy," the AHA's Greg Donaldson told us. "That support is pretty fractional and certainly isn't in our view. The American Heart Association disagrees, pointing out that the money it has received from soda companies amounts to less than one-tenth of 1 percent of their total revenues.
"So it's inconsistent with the mission of these organizations to be taking money from the soda companies." "These companies use corporate sponsorship as a way to divert attention from their role in the obesity epidemic," Siegel argues. The Salt How One Man Tried To Slim Down Big Soda From The Inside health and medical organizations, including the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association, whose missions include fighting obesity. He argues their actions "call into question a sincere commitment to improving the public's health."Īt the same time, Siegel's study documents how the soda companies have spent millions of dollars sponsoring U.S. Siegel published a study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine this month that finds that between 20, Coca-Cola and Pepsi lobbied against 29 public health bills that were intended to "reduce soda consumption or improve nutrition." "We know that cigarette taxes reduce cigarette consumption, alcohol taxes reduce alcohol consumption, and soda taxes are going to reduce soda consumption." "The one thing we know very definitively from abundant evidence is that taxes work," says Boston University's Siegel. And just this week, Pepsi announced its goals to cut the sugar content and calories of drinks it sells around the globe.īut some critics say as long as the industry is trying to fend off taxes on sugary drinks, it is fighting against one of the most effective strategies to reduce consumption. In 2014 the American Beverage Association announced new commitments to increase efforts to market water and lower-calorie beverages. And in recent years, beverage companies have warmed up to the idea of downsizing their serving sizes and calories. These numbers are not lost on the industry.
And let's face it, most Americans don't regularly get this much exercise. The Salt In 'Soda Politics,' Big Soda At Crossroads Of Profit And Public Healthīut here's the reality check: To burn off the 250 calories in one 20-ounce soda, a 110-pound adolescent needs to run about 50 minutes, or walk about 5 miles, according to one analysis. What's actually on the ballots in San Francisco, Oakland and Albany, Calif., and in Boulder, Colo., are measures to tax soda and other sugary drinks. "This is just a mirage by the soda industry to try to hide the fact that this is a targeted tax on sugar-sweetened beverages."
Michael Siegel of Boston University School of Public Health. In one ad, the camera pans to images of tomatoes and beans, as a local business owner says, "The grocery tax is going to hurt my customers."īut here's the thing. " Don't Tax Our Groceries" is the tagline of the $9.5 million campaign, which is funded by the American Beverage Association. If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, you may have seen ads urging you to vote "no" on a grocery tax. The city is one of several in California that have a soda tax on the ballot this November. Bottles of Fanta are displayed in a food truck's cooler in 2014 in San Francisco.