Soda Free Summer

Ugh. For shame.

Is Coke Paying Dietitians To Tweet Against the Soda Tax? – #CokeLeak You may remember the surprise last year that Coca-Cola had paid health experts and university researchers to deflect blame about the health…

Since Measure D was implemented, Berkeley has dedicated $2 million in soda tax revenue to community health programs and schools. Oakland can do the same with Measure HH.

BANPAC 2.0: General Membership Meeting

So, this just happened. BOOM.

Oakland City Council Puts Soda Tax on November Ballot The measure is nearly identical to the sugar-sweetened beverage fee passed in Berkeley in 2014.

Soft-Drink and Sugar Makers Plunge on Surprise U.K. Budget Levy Companies that profit from Britain’s sweet tooth plunged as U.K. Chancellor George Osborne unveiled a sugar tax, a surprise move that adds another burden to U.K. food and beverage companies already grappling with marketing restrictions and a shift toward healthier fare.

AB 2782 would impose a two-cent per fluid ounce fee on sugary drink distributors and has the potential to generate over $2-billion annually for obesity and diabetes prevention programs.

New CA Bill Could Add 2-Cent Tax Per Ounce to Soda, Sugary Drinks Soda and sugary drinks may soon cost you a little more in California.

We applaud Stephen Curry for signing an endorsement deal with Brita USA! "Drinking water is essential to a healthy lifestyle. Water is my drink. I like that Brita makes tap water taste good, so you don't need to spend money or waste plastic with bottled water."

For shame, Coca-Cola. This commercial is egregious and indeed "a painful metaphor of ongoing colonialism in the country." Want to know the truth about Big Soda and the way they target communities of color? Look no further than Gabriel Cortez's searing spoken word piece called PERFECT SOLDIERS --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgh8NxNnhoI

Coke Ad Shows Hipsters Bringing Soda To Indigenous Mexicans "A painful metaphor of ongoing colonialism in the country."

Davis, California is poised to be the next city to take a stand against Big with a measure on the June ballot!

Tax sugary drinks to improve public health, address unfunded needs By Delaine Eastin, Dr. Harold Goldstein and Helen Thomson Davis’ population approaches 67,000, including a cadre of college students. We certainly aren’t the largest of cities, but 2015 could...

So not funny, it's funny. Via The Onion

Breaking News: SFSU students win. President Wong announces end to negotiating pouring rights contract with !
http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Soda-battle-bubbles-up-at-S-F-State-6629002.php

President Wong announces end to negotiating pouring rights contract with !

North Carolina Children’s Specialty Clinic to be renamed Krispy Kreme Challenge Children’s Specialty Clinic. No, this is not a headline from The Onion but a huge public health failure on the University's part no matter how they try to spin it. http://gawker.com/unc-childrens-clinic-officially-renaming-itself-the-kr-1738257398

The New York Times Editorial Board nails it. "Many countries could almost certainly improve public health by matching or improving upon Mexico’s beverage tax."

taxes work. Period.

What a Big Tax on Soft Drinks Can Do In Mexico, such a tax has driven down consumption of sugary drinks, which could be an important public health measure if adopted in the United States.

"Coca-Cola is poison for kids". Well said, Tom Brady, well said.

Tom Brady Calls Coke ‘Poison for Kids’ New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady said food and beverage companies have lied to consumers about their deleterious effects and specifically called out Coke and Frosted Flakes.

Kudos to Choose Health L.A. on their simple, brilliant new campaign.
Water: The Healthiest Choice

L.A. County launches campaign against childhood obesity With one in six California kids classified as significantly overweight, Los Angeles County health officials launched a campaign this week to encourage families to drink water instead of sugary beverages and curb childhood obesity.

QOTD "Gatorade: the sugar water for people who do sports" Excellent work from The Atlantic. Hat Tip to .

The Money Spent Selling Sugar to Americans is Staggering Why do people eat what they eat? Choice has little to do with it.

"The drop in represents the single largest change in the American diet in the last decade." [drops mic]

The Decline of ‘Big Soda’ The drop in soda consumption represents the single largest change in the American diet in the last decade.

exposes the real reasons that Big donates so much $$$.

What Coca-Cola is doing with its money right now is actually kind of genius Coke finally made its charitable donations public—so we asked renowned nutritionist and soda industry expert Marion Nestle to explain its giving strategy.

Big wants you to think they care about your health. Meanwhile they've spent over $100 MILLION to defeat public health measures.

Soda Industry Spending Against Public Health Tops $100 Million ~ Newsroom ~ News from CSPI ~... Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and the American Beverage Association have spent at least $106 million to defeat public health initiatives at the federal, state, and local levels since 2009, according to an analysis conducted by the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest. The actual amount spent by…

A great read about Mexico's tax in the fight against and . Spoiler: It's working!

Via Food MythBusters

Mexico Soda Tax Mexico's Real Thing: a tax on sugary drinks to fight obesity

We are absolutely loving the backlash to Coca-Cola paying off scientists to misrepresent their products. Check out these latest cartoons running in newspapers across the country!

Coca-Cola and their shills tell people to drink up and exercise more. Real scientists respond by lambasting the giant. This, friends, this is how you !

Coke’s Skewed Message on Obesity: Drink Coke. Exercise More. Readers disagree with a Coke-funded group that exercise is the key to weight loss.

“Providing Coca-Cola with direct access to our children, and allowing them to seductively teach children that they can balance bad diets and sugar sweetened soda with exercise, is both horrifying and inane.” - Dr. Yoni Freedhoff - Weighty Matters

Coca-Cola's misleading anti-obesity campaign al... Coca-Cola, which is under fire this week for allegedly misleading people about obesity, is also funding a separate pro-soda campaign aimed directly at children.

This article was emailed to us from five different people this morning. Let's keep sharing the truth about !

What One Can of Coke Does to Your Body in Only One Hour Most of us know soda isn’t good for us, but we don’t know exactly what happens to our bodies once we drink it. Here are the scandalous details.

Stay cool this weekend. Drink water. And if you're in Oakland, stop by the Fruit and Veggie Fest tomorrow for a delicious smoothie!

HealthyLiving...forLife! Place Matters - Alameda County Oakland Unified School District Safe Routes to Schools, Alameda County Alameda County Community Food Bank

Mexico's tax is working. Berkeley's will too.

Mexico’s Soda Tax Is Working. The US Should Learn From It Mexico’s one-peso-per-liter tax on sugary beverages is a model for its northern neighbor.

“There’s no need to drink these beverages...They’re causing tens of thousands of deaths, and we should eliminate them from the food supply.”
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/01/sugary-drinks-take-a-deathly-toll/?_r=1

For decades, Coca-Cola and other Big companies have spent billions of dollars trying to convince the world that soda equals happiness.

Perhaps no other advertisement in history exemplifies that more than the iconic “Hilltop” ad, where singers on a hillside expressed their wish to “buy the world a Coke.”

Our friends at thought it would be interesting to see a fresh take on the Hilltop ad—where real people, suffering from real soda-related health problems—could tell their stories.
Watch and share and .

Change the Tune