NEW YORK CITY – Is the battle against sugar working? That’s the question Hank Cardello, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and author of Stuffed: An Insider’s Look at Who’s (Really) Making America Fat, answers in an opinion piece in Forbes this week.
“Few dispute that too much sugar is bad for you. But as the war against it escalates and more food and beverage products are under siege, it’s a good time to examine what works and what doesn’t work in getting these industries to sell healthier products,” Cardello wrote.
He recommended not spending money to “promote sugar taxes, ban junk food advertising, change package labels, and do research related to healthier eating and food industry practices.” Cardello also pointed out that the other side has spent considerable sums to protect their right to make such products. He uses the push to add taxes to soft drinks as one example.
While Mexico is often touted as the poster child for soda taxes, studies have shown that while fewer people are buying sugared soft drinks, the obesity rates haven’t budged. Instead, families skimped “on other grocery items such as soap, toothpaste and toilet paper to pay for the higher cost of taxed beverages,” he wrote.
Cardello instead argues that spending money on research and development for healthier drinks, having more transparency and clarifying scientific findings related to healthy living by both health advocates and food and beverage companies would go a long way to fighting obesity. He also asked the groups to “jointly launch educational and public health initiatives focused on children’s developing palates” and to “make upfront commitments for improvement.”
He concluded that “activists need to understand that food and beverage companies, like all other companies, need to grow sales and make a profit. They need to remind corporations that great-tasting healthier items will be moneymakers. And food and beverage companies can’t afford to ignore what activists are saying; they provide useful insight into what consumers are turning their attention toward.”