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Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Un-Sweetened: How A Maryland County Cut Soda Sales Without A Soda Tax

A three-year campaign in Howard County, Md., aimed at curbing the community's sweet tooth led to a significant decline in sales of sugary drinks.

According to an analysis published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Internal Medicine, the Unsweetened campaign led to a 20 percent decrease in sales of soda and a 15 percent decline in fruit drink sales between January 2013 and December 2015.

"This policy-focused campaign provides a road map for other communities to reduce consumption of sugary drinks," write the authors of the JAMA Internal Medicine paper who evaluated the Unsweetened campaign.

The community-led campaign, funded by the Horizon Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to health and wellness, included TV and outdoor advertising, as well as a social media campaign. The campaign also worked with healthcare professionals — including pediatricians — to improve messaging that pediatricians could use to educate their patients on the risks associated with excessive sugar intake, including obesity and Type 2 diabetes.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good for them. I for one would like to pay less on public bad health choices

Anonymous said...

I've read the constitution, don't remember anything about the government controlling soda consumption?

Anonymous said...

Wow. something good happened WITHOUT government intervention and without a tax or penalty??? How can that be? Tell me it isn't so. My whole world has been down upside turned. I speak even can't.