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TweetSeptember 21, 2012, Harvard School of Public Health
Researchers from Harvard School of Public Health have found that greater consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) is linked with a greater genetic susceptibility to high body mass index (BMI) and increased risk of obesity. The study reinforces the view that environmental and genetic factors may act together to shape obesity risk.
The study appears September 21, 2012 in an advance online edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.
“Our study for the first time provides reproducible evidence from three prospective cohorts to show genetic …

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TweetOctober 8, 2012, Chicago Tribune by John Byrne and Wailin Wong
Pop machines in Chicago government buildings will carry calorie information and city workers will be able to win cash in a health competition paid for by Coca-Cola and other beverage giants under a plan Mayor Rahm Emanuel unveiled today.
Other places are giving the boot to pop machines or taxing sugary drinks, but Emanuel said his approach to the health issue is better because it emphasizes personal responsibility.
Appearing Monday at City Hall with representative of the Coke, Pepsi and Dr. Pepper …

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September 21, 2012, New York Times, Roni Caryn Rabin
Amid fervid criticism that New York City risks becoming a nanny state, city health officials this month banned the sale of supersize sugar-laden drinks in restaurants and movie theaters. Now scientists have handed the ban’s advocates a potent weapon: strong evidence that replacing sugared drinks with sugar-free substitutes or water really can slow weight gain in children.
Two-thirds of all American adults and one-third of children in the United States are overweight or obese. The contribution of sugary sodas and fruit drinks to …

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TweetJune 17, 2011, ABC news/Medpage Today, Kristina Fiore
Although high school students report drinking plenty of water, milk, and real fruit juice, they still gulp down more sugar-sweetened beverages than is probably good for them, CDC researchers found.
Nearly three-quarters (72.4 percent) of the teens who responded to a national survey said they drank at least one glass of water a day over the preceding seven days, Nancy Brener of the CDC and colleagues reported in the June 17 issue of Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report.
Among the 11,429 survey respondents, 42 percent …

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TweetThe Atlantic, By Kelly Brownell, Professor of Public Health at Yale University, November , 2010
Food companies have been in a headlong rush to prevent government from enacting policies that would affect sales of items such as sugar-sweetened beverages and fast food. One of their tactics is for the companies to issue pledges to protect children, saying in so many words, “You can trust us to police ourselves so government can back down.”
The marketing of junk food has been the focus of many such pledges. In the U.S., the pledges are …

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Tweet Food and Health News, November 13, 2010
Consumption of fructose-rich beverages, such as sugar-sweetened sodas and orange juice is associated with an increased risk of gout among women, although their contribution to the risk of gout in the population is likely modest because of the low incidence rate among women, according to a study that will appear in the November 24 print edition of JAMA. The study is being released early online to coincide with its presentation at the American College of Rheumatology annual scientific meeting.
Gout is a common and …

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TweetReuters, Julie Steenhuysen, November 1, 2010
Despite efforts to limit their availability, public elementary school students in the United States have more outlets to buy unhealthy beverages at school, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
Over a three-year period ending in 2009, more students could buy sweetened beverages like sodas, higher-fat milk and sports beverages from vending machines and school stores, they said. Such drinks are a major source of calories, and removing them from schools could help curb the nation’s obesity epidemic.
“Elementary school students are still surrounded by a variety of unhealthy …

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The Huffington Post, Gordon Campbell, October 28, 2010
New York City has an obesity problem and it’s hurting our children. Almost 40% of New York City public school children in kindergarten through eighth grade are overweight or obese. Obesity rates are substantially higher in low-income neighborhoods like Harlem and Corona, Queens where the percentages of obese or overweight children are 48% and 51% respectively. It is telling that consumption of sugar-packed drinks is consistently higher in those neighborhoods.
This is why Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov. David Paterson are seeking permission …

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TweetLos Angeles Times, Karen Kaplan, October 26, 2010
High-fructose corn syrup is often singled out as Food Enemy No. 1 because it has become ubiquitous in processed foods over about the last 30 years – a period that coincides with a steep rise in obesity. One of the primary sources of HFCS in the American diet is soda – in fact, many public health advocates refer to soda as “liquid candy.”
That nickname is more apt than advocates realized, according to a study published online this month by the journal Obesity.
Researchers from …

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TweetCleveland.com, Evelyn Theiss, October 24, 2010
Move over, trans fat. There’s a new nutritional pariah.
It’s high-fructose corn syrup, a moniker that has become so unappealing that the industry trade group behind it — the Corn Refiners Association — made a bid to the Food and Drug Administration in September to change the name to “corn sugar.”
The group says that “corn sugar” is more accurate, because “high-fructose corn syrup” incorrectly implies that the product, which is used in foods as a sweetener, is high in fructose when actually its proportion of …