While health experts remain conflicted on a number of questions about nutrition, there are very few who would contest the assertion that Americans drink too much soda and don't eat enough vegetables.
According to research recently presented at an American Heart Association conference, if Americans cut 8oz of soda out of their daily diet, while adding 100g of fruit, 100g of vegetables, and 50g of whole grains, the U.S. would experience 3.5 million fewer deaths related to cardiovascular disease in the next two years.
Way easier said than done, of course.
Recommended For You
Part of getting people to adopt healthier eating habits likely involves getting sugar-loaded processed foods out of school cafeterias and educating children and adults alike about the importance of eating fresh fruits and vegetables and limiting sugar intake.
But there's a powerful one-two punch that might go a long way as well: Raise the price of pop and drop the price of veggies.
The researchers, whose work was reported on by Medical News Today, said that reducing the price of fresh vegetables by 10 percent and raising the price of sugary beverages by 10 percent could prevent half a million American deaths in the next 20 years.
In other terms, the price changes would reduce heart disease by 2 percent during that timeframe.
Soda taxes are far from a new concept of course. They have been championed by public health advocates, who argue that the food industry should have to help finance the public health costs it helps produce, just as tobacco companies have been mercilessly taxed in recent years in an attempt to make cigarettes less attractive to consumers and to cover the major health expenditures that tobacco use tragically necessitates.
Another study recently suggested another approach to soda: Warning labels. Parents are less likely to buy their kids pop if a cigarette-style warning is prominently displayed on the can.
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
