An Overdue Thank You to Big Soda

Food Day: So there I was at the California Center for Public Health Advocacy’s annual awards ceremony when it hit me like a double shot espresso from the Cuban place I used to frequent before I gave up coffee.  I think it was during Nick Jonas’ introduction of his endocrinologist Dr. Fran Kaufman, one of the afternoon’s honorees and the former President of the American Diabetes Association.  Yes, that Nick Jonas, a third of the famous Jonas Brothers of teen idol fame. Jonas was diagnosed with Type One diabetes at the age of 13, turning the singer/songwriter, actor and musician into a tireless advocate for diabetes diagnosis, research and control through diet and exercise.  Between you and me the pop star was a welcome addition to the program which in the past has been a kinda wonky public health prevention affair. For starters, imagine a meal at a glitzy downtown L.A. hotel that features raw vegetables without the fattening dips and weighs in at well under the daily recommended calorie count.

Anyhow, the epiphany I experienced while listening to Nick Jonas is that perhaps we owe the soda and junk food industry a big thank you rather than our brickbats. After all, it’s the manufacturers of that garbage that are creating a whole new generation of healthy eating advocates – including some diabetic and obese individuals raised on the empty and fattening calories of soda and other junk food.

The soda guys are the ones behind the disingenuous “This is America where it is all about individual responsibility” argument. The fact is, no one is better than the big spenders at Coke, Pepsi and Sunkist at convincing the public that it doesn’t need anyone telling them how unhealthy it is to drink that bottle of soda containing 16 teaspoons of sugar (the equivalent of 22 packets of sugar).  Who do you think it is that pays top dollar to the world’s “best” Mad Men to gin up evocative monikers like “nanny state” and “food police.”

Think about it.  The soda industry believes the committed, hardworking public health advocates at CCPHA shouldn’t be allowed to tell the public the truth about soda but it is OK for the soda and junk food industry to spend many hundreds of millions of dollars a year to convince the public that decisions about what they eat is their own choice.  The industry spends half a billion dollars a year alone just marketing to kids.

At the end of the day, it is the individual or parent who decides what they or their child eats.  But if you believe for a minute that those decisions are not influenced by the ad campaigns the soda and junk food industry buys with its bottomless marketing budget then I have a bridge you may be interested in.

So let’s hear some thanks.  It is time we gave it up for the soda companies for helping us recruit the future leaders of the movement to get soda and other junk food out of our communities.  I’m surprised it took us this long to realize the debt of gratitude we owe them over at the bottling plant.  Happy Food Day!

Joel Epstein, an editor at The Urban Times, is a Los Angeles resident, Metro rider, and strategic communications consultant focused on transportation, public health and other critical urban issues. For more about Joel visit: JoelEpstein.com.