If all goes well over the next ten days, any advertisement for soda, or any other type of beverage with added sugars, displayed in San Francisco will soon include the following message:
“WARNING: Drinking beverages with added sugar(s) contributes to obesity, diabetes, and tooth decay. This is a message from the City and County of San Francisco.”
Just yesterday, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved legislation requiring all sugary drink ads within the city to sport this label -— with a unanimous vote! If the mayor signs the legislation within 10 days, it will become law, and will go into effect sometime this summer.
On top of that, the legislation also includes a measure to place a moratorium on all ads for sugary beverages within city limits — and will prohibit city spending on these drinks. This is the first such measure approved in the US, and we say it couldn’t have come soon enough.
Supervisor Scott Wiener, who was responsible for proposing the bill, stated, “These are not just harmless products that taste good… these are products that are making people sick.”
On the passing of this important legislation, Wiener added:
“These health warnings will help provide people information they need to make informed decisions about what beverages they consume. Requiring health warnings on soda ads also makes clear that these drinks aren’t harmless — indeed, quite the opposite — and that the puppies, unicorns, and rainbows depicted in soda ads aren’t reality.”
California has been at the forefront of our nation for the past few years as far as cracking down on sugary drinks. As we reported last year, the city of Berkeley passed a “soda tax” on sugary beverages, by a whopping 75 percent majority. Many other similar measures have been proposed in California, but sadly, have been defeated due to million-dollar lobbying by the beverage industry.
While the beverage industry and its advocates are understandably upset by the passing of this legislation, and are already cooking up plans to fight it, it is being hailed by a large number of medical professionals, who stress that education is key in keeping people away from these supremely unhealthy drinks.
We don’t have to tell you that soda is bad — we all know it’s really bad! Along with links to diabetes, obesity, and tooth decay, we have extensively explored how soda is also linked to inflammation, kidney failure, and chronic dehydration. Sugar itself is a pure poison, which has been associated with heart disease, depression, and accelerated aging, among many other ills.
On top of its links to disease, sugar has been found to be highly addictive — leading you to consume more and more of it. The more sugar you eat, the more likely you are to experience its highly detrimental effects.
We enthusiastically applaud the important action taken by San Francisco, and hope that it inspires the rest of the country to do more about this sugary scourge!
-The Alternative Daily
Sources:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/san-francisco-vote-sugary-drink-soda-health-warnings
http://time.com/3915485/san-francisco-soda-warning-label
https://www.thealternativedaily.com/4-sugar-secrets-food-industry-keeping
