Michael Jacobson, senior scientist at and co-founder of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), tracks the rise of soda consumption, proliferation of research on its health effects, and industry responses over the years. As former Executive Director of CSPI for 40 years until 2017 and author of books such as Nutrition Scoreboard: your guide to better eating and the recently released Salt Wars: The Battle Over the Biggest Killer in the American Diet, Mike draws on decades of experience as a nutrition advocate. He describes in depth the deeply politicized nature of the fight for SSB taxes and efforts to preempt them both on local and national levels. In addition to SSB taxes, Mike explains the wide array of innovative strategies advocates have used to reduce sugary drink consumption, including removing sugary beverages from schools, children's meals, and checkout aisles and the need for research to assess both efficacy and messaging around various strategies. While he notes that there has been a 25% reduction in per capita consumption of carbonated soft drinks since 1998, Mike argues that further decreasing SSB consumption across the nation--and centering equity in these efforts-- will require deep engagement with the communities and geographies most impacted. This episode of In Praxis is a part of Season 2: Sugar Sweetened Beverage Taxes.
The information, opinions, views, and conclusions proposed in this episode are those of our podcast guests.