Posts tagged as:

obesity and soda

Fighting childhood obesity: SNAP v. soda

by Tripp Underwood on September 27, 2011

In the mid 20th century, hunger was a major concern for America’s poor. To better support malnourished families living below the poverty line, the federal government created the Food Stamp Act in 1964 to help provide healthy food to people in need.

America’s nutritional landscape has changed a lot over the past 50 years. Malnourishment is still a big problem in America, but in a much different way than it was back then.

Because of their lower prices and mass availability, unhealthy foods and drinks have become a staple in the diets of millions of Americans. Obesity rates in this country have grown to epidemic levels, with impoverished communities being hit especially hard. In low-income homes across the country, overweight and obese children now outnumber underweight kids by a ratio of seven to one.

To combat this epidemic, many states are trying to change what type of items people can buy via the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP-formerly know as food stamps). Because sugar-sweetened beverages have no nutritional value and have been closely linked with obesity, nine states, including Illinois, Nebraska, Texas and most recently New York, have tried to have these drinks barred from being bought with SNAP money. In each case the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has said no. Full story »

Artificially sweetened beverages: Is it nice to fool Mother Nature?

by David Ludwig, MD, PhD on December 10, 2009

David Ludwig, MD, PhD, director of Children’s Optimal Weight for Life Program, just published a commentary in JAMA expressing concern about the widespread use of artificial sweeteners in soft drinks. Below, he offers some insight about why humans naturally crave sweetness, and the potential danger of confusing our ancient biological pathways of hunger and satiation with fake sugars.

Ever since our distant ancestors crawled out of the ocean, animals have been trying to eat plants. In this conflict, animals would seem to have a distinct advantage: we can move about, they can’t. But plants are by no means defenseless against our predations. They protect themselves with thorns, bark and tough fibers; stash their starches in tubers that are difficult to digest (at least when uncooked); encase their most prized possessions, high energy nuts and seeds, in impervious shells; and lace their leaves with bitter, toxic chemicals.

In fact, plants have long taken advantage of animals to help them reproduce. To entice us to serve them, plants have created seed-bearing fruits and infused them with sugar, the gold standard of energy metabolism. Full story »

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The soda-tax solution

by Erin Graham on October 7, 2009

ludwig-150x150-1 In a Thrive post a few weeks ago, David Ludwig, MD, PhD, director of Children’s Optimal Weight for Life Program, shared his views on how taxing soda can reduce consumption by making it too expensive.

In his new Opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times, Ludwig explains how targeting sodas and other sugary beverages could not only help curb childhood obesity, but could also act as a way to raise money to pay for health care costs.