Tuesday, September 21, 2004
Soda and milk and the government
[Radley Balko, "What Does a Body Good?," Tech Central Station, 20 September 2004.]
America's struggle with obesity must be some big industry's fault, it's just a matter of determining who is to blame:
The most recent contribution to the obesity debate comes from the Journal of the American Medical Association, which purported to link soda consumption to weight gain and risk for diabetes, though the study's conclusion -- that women who switched from drinking one or fewer sodas per week to one or more per day would gain weight -- is hardly earth-shattering. Adding 150 calories per day of anything to a standard diet will on average amount to about a pound-and-a-half of weight gain per month. The study in question took place over the course of four years.
The JAMA study also does little to link soda consumption to the obesity problem. As George Mason University professor Todd Zywicki shows in this graph, over the same period obesity prevalence has allegedly taken off, soda consumption has remained relatively stable. In fact, the only beverage we seem to be buying more of in the last 15 or so years is bottled water, which has no calories. Sales have nearly quadrupled.
Nevertheless, demonizing Big Soda has proved to generate headlines for nutrition activists and anti-corporatists.
It's also been a boon for the dairy industry. The makers of whole milk, heavy cream, cheese, and sour cream and their advocates in Congress have of late been making the case that not only is soda bad for you, but that an extra serving or two of dairy in its stead could help put a dent in the obesity problem. The theory, propagated by dairy state Senators Patrick Leahy, Jim Jeffords, and Tom Harkin -- among others -- is that kids today drink too much soda.
The odd thing about all of this is that there's little evidence that kids actually are substituting soda for dairy. According to the American Dairy Association and the Dairy Council, annual milk consumption of children 6 to 12 years of age is at its highest level in 10 years.
This isn't to say that soda is or isn't better than milk and dairy, or even that either is or isn't a major contributor to childhood obesity. There's abundant literature to support the position of every interest group with a dog in the obesity fight. Even within the community of nutrition activists and anti-fat warriors -- all of whom seem to loathe soda -- there's contention about the role of milk in the obesity problem, and how much dairy we can (or should) consume as part of a healthy diet.
But the milk-soda face-off does show us that when lawmakers and activists invoke the obesity problem to push legislation regulating, taxing, or otherwise restricting our choices as food consumers, the healthiest thing we can do is exercise some skepticism. It's probably of no coincidence that dairy state senators insist that our kids need more dairy, and are willing to meddle with the schools to make sure they get it. Government agents aren't benevolent, they're self-interested -- even when they claim to be legislating to improve our health, or on behalf of chubby children.
Perhaps the real lesson here is that government ought to stay out of the obesity fight altogether. Choosing what we eat each day is not only an intimate and personal decision, it's a very important one, with obvious repercussions on our health and happiness. Guidance and influence for those decisions should probably come from parties whose main interest is our health -- our doctors, for example. Policymakers may claim to be legislating for our well-being, but their primary interest lies with the constituents who elect them, and with the interest groups who keep them in power. We should be wary of government attempts to influence those decisions, and we should be intolerant of efforts to restrict them through taxes, regulation, or outright prohibition.
A better route would be to allow Americans to freely make their own decisions about what they eat, but also be sure that they and only they bear the consequences of those decisions.
[Radley Balko, "What Does a Body Good?," Tech Central Station, 20 September 2004.]
America's struggle with obesity must be some big industry's fault, it's just a matter of determining who is to blame:
The most recent contribution to the obesity debate comes from the Journal of the American Medical Association, which purported to link soda consumption to weight gain and risk for diabetes, though the study's conclusion -- that women who switched from drinking one or fewer sodas per week to one or more per day would gain weight -- is hardly earth-shattering. Adding 150 calories per day of anything to a standard diet will on average amount to about a pound-and-a-half of weight gain per month. The study in question took place over the course of four years.
The JAMA study also does little to link soda consumption to the obesity problem. As George Mason University professor Todd Zywicki shows in this graph, over the same period obesity prevalence has allegedly taken off, soda consumption has remained relatively stable. In fact, the only beverage we seem to be buying more of in the last 15 or so years is bottled water, which has no calories. Sales have nearly quadrupled.
Nevertheless, demonizing Big Soda has proved to generate headlines for nutrition activists and anti-corporatists.
It's also been a boon for the dairy industry. The makers of whole milk, heavy cream, cheese, and sour cream and their advocates in Congress have of late been making the case that not only is soda bad for you, but that an extra serving or two of dairy in its stead could help put a dent in the obesity problem. The theory, propagated by dairy state Senators Patrick Leahy, Jim Jeffords, and Tom Harkin -- among others -- is that kids today drink too much soda.
The odd thing about all of this is that there's little evidence that kids actually are substituting soda for dairy. According to the American Dairy Association and the Dairy Council, annual milk consumption of children 6 to 12 years of age is at its highest level in 10 years.
This isn't to say that soda is or isn't better than milk and dairy, or even that either is or isn't a major contributor to childhood obesity. There's abundant literature to support the position of every interest group with a dog in the obesity fight. Even within the community of nutrition activists and anti-fat warriors -- all of whom seem to loathe soda -- there's contention about the role of milk in the obesity problem, and how much dairy we can (or should) consume as part of a healthy diet.
But the milk-soda face-off does show us that when lawmakers and activists invoke the obesity problem to push legislation regulating, taxing, or otherwise restricting our choices as food consumers, the healthiest thing we can do is exercise some skepticism. It's probably of no coincidence that dairy state senators insist that our kids need more dairy, and are willing to meddle with the schools to make sure they get it. Government agents aren't benevolent, they're self-interested -- even when they claim to be legislating to improve our health, or on behalf of chubby children.
Perhaps the real lesson here is that government ought to stay out of the obesity fight altogether. Choosing what we eat each day is not only an intimate and personal decision, it's a very important one, with obvious repercussions on our health and happiness. Guidance and influence for those decisions should probably come from parties whose main interest is our health -- our doctors, for example. Policymakers may claim to be legislating for our well-being, but their primary interest lies with the constituents who elect them, and with the interest groups who keep them in power. We should be wary of government attempts to influence those decisions, and we should be intolerant of efforts to restrict them through taxes, regulation, or outright prohibition.
A better route would be to allow Americans to freely make their own decisions about what they eat, but also be sure that they and only they bear the consequences of those decisions.
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