Should sweet drinks be regulated more strictly?

[ナルゴ]

By sweet drinks, I mean common non-alcoholic beverages with high sugar content.
-Bottled tea
-Sodas
-Fruit juices
-Milk-based drinks
etc

The recommended daily amount for an adult is 9 to 12 tsp (36 grams to 50 grams).
Some recommend that it should be even lower like 6 tsp (25 grams) per day

Now let's compare that to the sugar content of common products

1 cup of chocolate milk (250g) is 24g of sugar
1 can of Coca‑Cola (12 oz) has 39g of sugar
1 bottle of Gatorade (600ml) has 36g of sugar.

You can pretty very easily exceed the daily recommended sugar consumption amount by including these products in your diet.

The consequences of this are very real:

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/diabetes.htm
-About 16 percent of Americans have diabetes.
-100k people died of diabetes last year.
-Ranked 8th among the causes of death in the USA.
And this doesn't include the other effects of excess sugar consumption like obesity related illnesses.

Insulin has become an industry worth billions. And for some people, it's an extreme financial burden to keep buying it.

Medicare is one of the largest expenditures in the US federal budget (1 trillion). And IMO illnesses related to excess sugar consumption is a major part of that. It's a drag on the entire economy.

My suggestion would be to promote a sugar tax, similar to the tobacco tax. Many countries already implemented it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugary_drink_tax
It's just that sugar taxes in the USA are implemented on a state level and are AFAIK largely ineffective.

I would go further and force companies to cap how much sugar (and sugar substitutes) they can put in a single serving of a beverage.

[Zilkenian Davenport]

craigsters の投稿を引用：

soft drinks were original only available at pharmacy's and where medicinal use only and Coca-Cola or coke had cocaine in it at one time

I really want someone to say "those were the times".

As for your question, OP, I'm afraid they shouldn't, or at least not in a forced way.
If people want to get a huge intake of sugar, then it's their choice. You can inform them about what sugar does, but at the end of the day they're the ones who decide to continue drinking it or not.

[Hobbit XIII]

GunsForBucks の投稿を引用：

Hobbit XIII の投稿を引用：

The regulation should have big red bars at the top of the product if it reaches the daily limit of sugar recommended.

With cigarettes in the UK they put big warning on.
With sugary drinks they should have a big red bar around the top going right around the bottle / can. A thick red bar that cannot be mistaken as part of the design.
free market principle and the right to choose from the consumer.
I would go further and to ensure the free market principle that there must be an alternative none heavy sugar option available.
So consumer gets choice.

This will help also in identifying if people really do want all that extra sugar in the first place.

Before that we need a big red banner on anything containing bug parts that were intentionally put in.

Sugar I couldn't care less about.

Insects in my food?
Toxins put on fruit and veggies?

Especially the new ones that won't wash off... they made sure to not have to warn consumers about that.

The topic is about sugary drinks.

If you make one about regulations and bug parts (or the kitchen sink of food regulations even)you may get answers / responses you are looking for.

[GunsForBucks]

Hobbit XIII の投稿を引用：

GunsForBucks の投稿を引用：

Before that we need a big red banner on anything containing bug parts that were intentionally put in.

Sugar I couldn't care less about.

Insects in my food?
Toxins put on fruit and veggies?

Especially the new ones that won't wash off... they made sure to not have to warn consumers about that.

The topic is about sugary drinks.

If you make one about regulations and bug parts (or the kitchen sink of food regulations even)you may get answers / responses you are looking for.

Not sure what you think I am looking for.

I commented about the sugar regulation and how it is bad in taking away focus from more important issues.

If you want to play moderator if you don't want to reply to my comment go ahead. You could just not reply though.

[Zilkenian Davenport]

GunsForBucks の投稿を引用：

Hobbit XIII の投稿を引用：

The topic is about sugary drinks.

If you make one about regulations and bug parts (or the kitchen sink of food regulations even)you may get answers / responses you are looking for.

Not sure what you think I am looking for.

I commented about the sugar regulation and how it is bad in taking away focus from more important issues.

If you want to play moderator if you don't want to reply to my comment go ahead. You could just not reply though.

He meant you're going Off Topic in this thread.
Yes, sugar may be taking the focus away from other things, but this thread is about the sugar in those drinks, nothing else.

[GunsForBucks]

Zef Davenport の投稿を引用：

GunsForBucks の投稿を引用：

Not sure what you think I am looking for.

I commented about the sugar regulation and how it is bad in taking away focus from more important issues.

If you want to play moderator if you don't want to reply to my comment go ahead. You could just not reply though.

He meant you're going Off Topic in this thread.
Yes, sugar may be taking the focus away from other things, but this thread is about the sugar in those drinks, nothing else.

OP is
Should sweet drinks be regulated more strictly?

It is about regulation.

I won't comment on this further as this would be going off topic.

[DoomsDay]

all the fake thrills, and real damage. the reason they could sell those, is because they think people are smart enough to have self control, like the very regulated employee and developer does.
reality is, most people are born clueless, they become easy target for bad product and bad labour market.
in a world of failed product, I no longer understand what I am striving for.so very sad,look i only went in a store to buy a bottle of coke,and now this?please say that i didnt rob and murder someone to get the money for the coke.

[Chaosolous]

Didn’t the USSC just rule against governmental regulation?

[Stranger]

I don't think nutrition should be regulated, I think that's a problematic concept.

Who gets to determine how much sugar my altered physiology really needs? I think I should.

We already cut food production to maintain prices. Would turning regulation into a political issue cause (even more) starvation? Probably!

Is the tax on sugar a divide and conquer strategy to separate sugar from the rest of agrobusiness, so that it can't consolidate and push for higher or lower production? Yeah.

[ナルゴ]

Sir Dookface McFerretballs の投稿を引用：

Hell no.

No more regulation. If you want to let people know something is bad, put the info out there so it's easy to find.

I'm tired of over-regulation that almost always leads to overreach and corruption and worse things happening than the thing being regulated.

Normally, I'd agree. I want less regulation in other sectors.
However food is an exception for me because I strongly believe in the phrase "You are what you eat". For a society to be the best that it can be, it needs to be healthy.
The quality of one's body strongly affects people's decision making and perspectives in life.

Freedom is great, but so is self control. And it's become evident to me that there's a severe lack of the latter.

A compromise would be that these sugar taxes can be conditional. In other words, only in-effect until the rate of obesity drops down to a specific target. Like less than 1/5 of the population.

Hobbit XIII の投稿を引用：

The regulation should have big red bars at the top of the product if it reaches the daily limit of sugar recommended.

With cigarettes in the UK they put big warning on.
With sugary drinks they should have a big red bar around the top going right around the bottle / can. A thick red bar that cannot be mistaken as part of the design.
free market principle and the right to choose from the consumer.
I would go further and to ensure the free market principle that there must be an alternative none heavy sugar option available.
So consumer gets choice.

This will help also in identifying if people really do want all that extra sugar in the first place.

This is a good less intrusive method. I like it.
IIRC the tobacco industry used pictorial health warnings too. i.e. actual images of people severely ill from things like lung cancer, to dissuade people from purchasing tobacco products.
https://www.who.int/tools/pictorial-health-warnings-on-tobacco-products

Could do the same with sugary drinks. Every bottle of coca-cola showing the potential effects of consuming it; crippling obesity, symptoms of diabetes, gastrointestinal cancer, etc.

[Elation]

Dutchgamer1982 の投稿を引用：

those who say no regulation.. you morons.

our biology is hardwired to crave sweet.. a good survival techbique in a jungle hunting and gathering.. but not so much in these modern times.
our biology is just unsuited for so much temptation.

sugar is adictive and the food industry knows this and this overstimulates you and puts hidden sugar in every freaking product..

so you say "just be strong" when our very biology is hard wired to crave the stuff, and marketing is doing everything to feed us more of the stuff than we think even if we think we pick healthy products like a salad.. 6 hidden cubes of sugar..crap like that.

it is also proven that your taste gets conditioned.
you can lower sugar gradually and not find it taste bad than get how you used to drink it and find it sickening sweet.
by gradually reducing sugar contents by say 3% per year for all products we can break the adiction

the food industry is not in your interest believe me they be putting heroine and coke in your sandwich if they legally could. they need regulating.

i not think soda sugar content is the main issue here.. the realnissue is sugar being abused to sell more crap at zero regards for public health.
like over 70% of products contain added sugar even many advertised and percieved as healthy..
-lables use over 100 different names for sugar to fool customers further.
-and than there it is to commonly bombarded at you.. both in where it is?sold how it is sold and how it is?adverrtised.. all to trigger that adiction praying on the most weak (inclufing children to get them adicted early)
that ♥♥♥♥ does need regulating.

but NOT as they now do in my nation with a sugartax which just caused products to replace halve the sugar for sweetners that are way way worse than sugar.

Never thought I'd agree with you on anything...but you actually said a lot of good things in this post.

[Uncle Sam]

Nargo の投稿を引用：

By sweet drinks, I mean common non-alcoholic beverages with high sugar content.
-Bottled tea
-Sodas
-Fruit juices
-Milk-based drinks
etc

The recommended daily amount for an adult is 9 to 12 tsp (36 grams to 50 grams).
Some recommend that it should be even lower like 6 tsp (25 grams) per day

Now let's compare that to the sugar content of common products

1 cup of chocolate milk (250g) is 24g of sugar
1 can of Coca‑Cola (12 oz) has 39g of sugar
1 bottle of Gatorade (600ml) has 36g of sugar.

You can pretty very easily exceed the daily recommended sugar consumption amount by including these products in your diet.

The consequences of this are very real:

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/diabetes.htm
-About 16 percent of Americans have diabetes.
-100k people died of diabetes last year.
-Ranked 8th among the causes of death in the USA.
And this doesn't include the other effects of excess sugar consumption like obesity related illnesses.

Insulin has become an industry worth billions. And for some people, it's an extreme financial burden to keep buying it.

Medicare is one of the largest expenditures in the US federal budget (1 trillion). And IMO illnesses related to excess sugar consumption is a major part of that. It's a drag on the entire economy.

My suggestion would be to promote a sugar tax, similar to the tobacco tax. Many countries already implemented it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugary_drink_tax
It's just that sugar taxes in the USA are implemented on a state level and are AFAIK largely ineffective.

I would go further and force companies to cap how much sugar (and sugar substitutes) they can put in a single serving of a beverage.

I say a mix of normal regulation & transparency about the long term side effects akin to the anti-smoking campaign should be enough.

Outright bans or very severe regulation will push Corporations to the black market or put artificial replacement of sugar that can be made even more addictive & nocive in the long term.

[ナルゴ]

Uncle Sam の投稿を引用：

Nargo の投稿を引用：

By sweet drinks, I mean common non-alcoholic beverages with high sugar content.
-Bottled tea
-Sodas
-Fruit juices
-Milk-based drinks
etc

The recommended daily amount for an adult is 9 to 12 tsp (36 grams to 50 grams).
Some recommend that it should be even lower like 6 tsp (25 grams) per day

Now let's compare that to the sugar content of common products

1 cup of chocolate milk (250g) is 24g of sugar
1 can of Coca‑Cola (12 oz) has 39g of sugar
1 bottle of Gatorade (600ml) has 36g of sugar.

You can pretty very easily exceed the daily recommended sugar consumption amount by including these products in your diet.

The consequences of this are very real:

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/diabetes.htm
-About 16 percent of Americans have diabetes.
-100k people died of diabetes last year.
-Ranked 8th among the causes of death in the USA.
And this doesn't include the other effects of excess sugar consumption like obesity related illnesses.

Insulin has become an industry worth billions. And for some people, it's an extreme financial burden to keep buying it.

Medicare is one of the largest expenditures in the US federal budget (1 trillion). And IMO illnesses related to excess sugar consumption is a major part of that. It's a drag on the entire economy.

My suggestion would be to promote a sugar tax, similar to the tobacco tax. Many countries already implemented it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugary_drink_tax
It's just that sugar taxes in the USA are implemented on a state level and are AFAIK largely ineffective.

I would go further and force companies to cap how much sugar (and sugar substitutes) they can put in a single serving of a beverage.

I say a mix of normal regulation & transparency about the long term side effects akin to the anti-smoking campaign should be enough.

Outright bans or very severe regulation will push Corporations to the black market or put artificial replacement of sugar that can be made even more addictive & nocive in the long term.

Definitely don't want bans and severe regulations as it would be unenforceable. Mostly want to put light pressure on companies so that the overall levels of sugar in common drinks are lowered. Or at least give consumers more information about the dangers of excess sugar consumption so that they can make better informed diet choices.

[Rumpelcrutchskin]

They could easily drop the sugar content in soft drinks by 50-75% but instead they are literally causing bodily harm to people by trying to get them more addicted.

[Stranger]

Rumpelcrutchskin の投稿を引用：

They could easily drop the sugar content in soft drinks by 50-75% but instead they are literally causing bodily harm to people by trying to get them more addicted.

yeah well same thing with the caffeine content in energy drinks.

[Ulfrinn]

Make stuff that uses sugar more expensive, because it uses more sugar? First off, that's not going to stop people from having those drinks, you're just going to take more money out of their pockets and give it to government. And what's government going to do with the money taxed anyway? Another pay taise for congress? ♥♥♥♥ taxes.

I rarely consume sugar containing products, especially soda or drinks. In fact, I only drink water. But I'd be spending extra every time I did, all because other people can't contain themselves? Screw that.

I'd rather keep government as least involved in people's lives as possible.