An op-ed in the October 7th Wall Street Journal by Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent inspired me to do some fact-checking. In the article, “Coke Didn’t Make America Fat, Americans need more exercise, not another tax,” Mr. Kent defended his industry as being an easy target in the debate over obesity and its cause: “Sugar-sweetened beverages have been singled out in spite of the fact that soft drinks, energy drinks, sports drinks and sweetened bottled water combined contribute 5.5% of the calories in the average American diet, according to the National Cancer Institute.”
While I’ve yet to confirm or refute Mr. Kent’s claim, his 5.5% figure seems extremely low compared to estimates from recent research. According to a 2004 study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, soft drinks alone contributed an estimated seven percent of total caloric intake in the average U.S. diet. A 2004 study out of UC Berkeley, drawing from the same data, found soft drinks were the top contributor to U.S. caloric intake at 7.1%, followed by “cake, sweet rolls, donuts and pastries” at 3.6%. Read More >
The Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF) recognizes that one important way to affect change in the food system is to find ways to improve consumer purchasing and eating behaviors. The Meatless Monday campaign, which CLF endorsed seven years ago, encourages Americans to take control of their health by refraining from eating meat products one day a week. Meats like beef are more likely to contain saturated fats than most non-meat food sources. By cutting out high sources of saturated fats one day a week, Americans can help meet the Department of Health and Human Services’ Healthy People 2010 goal of reducing saturated fat intake to less than 10 percent of calories consumed each day. Meatless Monday has the potential to not only improve the populations’ health, but could also reduce unsustainable levels of demand for meat products, particularly industrially-produced meat, which use huge amounts of valuable natural resources and pose significant public health and environmental risks.
On the health behavior change side, the “Monday” model has great potential to serve as an effective communications tool to bolster virtually any long-term campaign. The model provides health promotion communicators 52 times a year to hammer home a message, convey reinforcements, reminders, and prompts. Likewise, it also gives a person trying to improve her/his own health behaviors 52 times a year to restart their commitment or behavior change if they fall off the wagon. Read More >
