DAVIS, Calif. -- A new usage study has health advocates renewing campaigns to include health warning labels on sugary drinks.
Adolescents who see warnings for sugary drinks—such as those to be required on ads in San Francisco and proposed in California and New York on labels—are less likely to choose sodas, sports drinks and other sugar-sweetened beverages, according to the study from the University of Pennsylvania published Sept. 8 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
“This study builds upon prior findings that sugary-drink warning labels will work as intended and shows a significant impact on soda’s prime consumer base: teenagers,” said Harold Goldstein, executive director of Public Health Advocates, Davis, Calif. “Overwhelmingly, teens reported that the warning labels succeeded in convincing them that sugar-sweetened beverages are unhealthy when compared to other products.”
The study, funded by the Healthy Eating Research Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said “significantly fewer adolescents chose a sugar-sweetened beverage” in three out of four warning-label conditions than in a no-label condition. The adolescents—ages 12-18—also expressed that they believed “sugar-sweetened beverages were less likely to help them lead a healthy life and had more added sugar compared with the no-label condition.”
The results come on the heels of another study that showed that the city of Berkeley’s soda tax successfully reduced sugary-drink consumption by 21% in low-income neighborhoods.
“This study confirms that warning labels provide consumers with the scientific information they need to make informed purchasing decisions,” Goldstein said. “The beverage industry’s voluntary labels may be clear about calorie content, but they say nothing about the specific dangers of beverages like sodas, sweet teas and sports, energy and fruit drinks.”
Responding to the report, the American Beverage Association, which represents the country's largest beverage makers, acknowledged too many calories are a concerned but cautioned against demonizing beverages.
"It’s important to recognize that beverages are not causing the rise we’ve seen in obesity and obesity-related conditions like diabetes," the association told CSP Daily News. "This is evidenced by the fact that obesity rates continued to rise for years while soda consumption dropped steadily at the same time.
"Labels like this do not provide people with accurate information about important health issues and will not address obesity in a meaningful way. ... America’s leading beverage companies ... are providing more reduced-calorie options and calorie counts to help [consumers] make the choice that’s right for them."
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