Soda Politics - Taking on Big Soda (And Winning)

How did products containing absurdly inexpensive ingredients become multibillion dollar industries and international brand icons, while also having a devastating impact on public health? In Soda Politics, Dr. Marion Nestle, a renowned food and nutrition policy expert and public health advocate, answers this question by detailing all of the ways that the soft drink industry works overtime to make drinking soda as common and accepted as drinking water, foradults and children.

List of contents

• Foreword, by Mark Bittman


• Introduction


• What is soda and why should anyone care?


• 1) Sodas: the inside story


• 2) Soda drinkers: facts and figures


• 3) The sugar(s) problem


• Sodas and health


• 4) Dietary advice: sugars and sugary drinks


• 5) The health issues: obesity, diabetes, and more


• 6) Advocating health: soda-free teeth


• The soda industry and how it works


• 7) Meet Big Soda: an overview


• 8) Obesity: Big Soda's response


• 9) Marketing sugary drinks: four basic principles


• Targeting children


• 10) Starting early: Marketing to infants, children, and teens


• 11) Advocating health: Ending soda marketing to kids


• 12) Advocating health: Getting sodas out of schools


• 13) Advocating health: Getting kids involved


• Targeting minorities and the poor


• 14) Marketing to African- and Hispanic-Americans: a complicated story


• 15) Selling to the developing world


• 16) Advocating health: excluding sodas from SNAP


• Playing softball: Recruiting allies, coopting critics


• 17) "Softball" marketing strategies: Corporate Social Responsibility


• 18) Investing in communities


• 19) Supporting worthy causes: health professionals and research


• 20) Recruiting public health leaders


• Playing softball: Mitigating soda-induced environmental damage


• 21) Advocating sustainability: defending the environment


• 22) Advocating sustainability: protecting public water resources


• Playing hardball: defending turf, attacking critics


• 23) Lobbying, campaign contributions, and the revolving door


• 24) Using public relations and front groups


• Taking action: soda caps and taxes


• 25) Advocating health: capping soda portion sizes


• 26) Advocating health: taxing sugary drinks


• 27) Advocating for health and the environment: take action


• Afterword, by Neal Baer


• Appendix I: The principal US groups advocating for healthier beverage choices


• Appendix II: National, state, and local campaigns to reduce soda consumption: selected examples


• Selected bibliography


• List of tables and figures


• Reference notes


• Acknowledgments


• Index

About the author

Dr. Marion Nestle is Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health and Professor of Sociology at New York University. Her degrees include a Ph.D. in molecular biology and an M.P.H. in public health nutrition, both from the University of California, Berkeley. She has been a member of the FDA Food Advisory Committee and Science Board, and the American Cancer Society committees that issue dietary guidelines for cancer prevention. She is also the author of Eat Drink Vote: An Illustrated Guide to Food Politics, Why Calories Count: From Science to Politics, Safe Food: The Politics of Food Safety , and Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health (

Summary

Sodas are astonishing products. Little more than flavored sugar-water, these drinks cost practically nothing to produce or buy, yet have turned their makers--principally Coca-Cola and PepsiCo--into a multibillion-dollar industry with global recognition, distribution, and political power. Billed as "refreshing," "tasty," "crisp," and "the real thing," sodas also happen to be so well established to contribute to poor dental hygiene, higher calorie intake, obesity, and type-2 diabetes that the first line of defense against any of these conditions is to simply stop drinking them. Habitually drinking large volumes of soda not only harms individual health, but also burdens societies with runaway healthcare costs.

So how did products containing absurdly inexpensive ingredients become multibillion dollar industries and international brand icons, while also having a devastating impact on public health?

In Soda Politics, the 2016 James Beard Award for Writing & Literature Winner, Dr. Marion Nestle answers this question by detailing all of the ways that the soft drink industry works overtime to make drinking soda as common and accepted as drinking water, for adults and children. Dr. Nestle, a renowned food and nutrition policy expert and public health advocate, shows how sodas are principally miracles of advertising; Coca-Cola and PepsiCo spend billions of dollars each year to promote their sale to children, minorities, and low-income populations, in developing as well as industrialized nations. And once they have stimulated that demand, they leave no stone unturned to protect profits. That includes lobbying to prevent any measures that would discourage soda sales, strategically donating money to health organizations and researchers who can make the science about sodas appear confusing, and engaging in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities to create goodwill and silence critics. Soda Politics follows the money trail wherever it leads, revealing how hard Big Soda works to sell as much of their products as possible to an increasingly obese world.

But Soda Politics does more than just diagnose a problem--it encourages readers to help find solutions. From Berkeley to Mexico City and beyond, advocates are successfully countering the relentless marketing, promotion, and political protection of sugary drinks. And their actions are having an impact--for all of the hardball and softball tactics the soft drink industry employs to maintain the status quo, soda consumption has been flat or falling for years. Health advocacy campaigns are now the single greatest threat to soda companies' profits. Soda Politics provides readers with the tools they need to keep up pressure on Big Soda in order to build healthier and more sustainable food systems.

Additional text

If you have been exhausted by the flip-flop of Brexit politics in recent weeks, Soda Politics offers a refreshing break - a great read for dietitians." -NHDmag

Product details

• Authors: Marion Nestle, Marion (Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutr Nestle, Marion (Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition Nestle, Nestle Marion
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.10.2017
• EAN: 9780190693145
• ISBN: 978-0-19-069314-5
• No. of pages: 512
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Medicine > General; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Social structure research; MEDICAL / Public Health, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / General, Food & society, Public health & preventive medicine, Social and ethical issues, Manufacturing industries, Cultural studies: food and society, Food Manufacturing & Related Industries, coca-cola; soda; pepsi