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Anti-soda tax protesters gather outside of City Hall
Photo | Lara Coleman
Anti-soda tax protesters gather outside of City Hall
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| Photo | Lara Coleman |
Coca-Cola employees, restaurant owners, and even Councilpersons Brian O’Neill and Frank Rizzo Jr. gathered today at noon at City Hall to protest Mayor Nutter's proposed 2-cent-per-ounce soda tax.
Since the tax was revealed earlier this month, Mayor Nutter has been arguing that it will not only generate revenue, but also promote better health and lower obesity rates for Philadelphia residents. Protesters, however, question why the city is only targeting soda as a perpetrator of obesity.
"What about McDonalds or Tastycakes?" asks Frank Berthcsi, an employee of Coca-Cola for 35 years. (More than 50 Coca-Cola employees attended the rally.) “It’s unjust the way they’re singling out soda companies.”
"If the Mayor taxed cheesesteaks he'd be out of office in a day," adds Ed Doile, a Coca-Cola production employee.
"I coach high school football," he continues. "The kids drink soda every day." Haasz also argues that soda drinkers are often healthy, citing his two sons as avid soda drinkers who have never been overweight.
Coca-Cola employees claim the tax will cause as many as 2,000 employees to lose their jobs, starting with those in management.
"I'd like to retire from Coca-Cola, but I won't if this goes through," says John Ilisco, a manager at Coca-Cola. "Managers are first to go."
Coca-Cola and Pepsi employees, along with the American Beverage Association, organized the event.
I woke up today unable to contain my frustration about the misleading information I am seeing in regard to the proposed soda tax and also the disproportionate focus some are trying to put on to the consumption of sugar alone.
Sugar has calories. Yes, we know that. But letÂ’s be clear: lots of healthy foods (like say, fruit) contain sugar and also, if you consumed NO calories, well, you wouldnÂ’t do very wellÂ…. Of course there is a major obesity problem in this country. There is also a general health crisis in this country. However, trying to somehow place the blame entirely on sugar or on beverages like soda that are sweetened with sugar, is myopic at best, and misleading at worst.
For instance, a lot was made recently in the press about a study released that concluded that there is a link between regular consumption of traditional soft drinks and pancreatic cancer. My dad just recovered from pancreatic cancer which nearly killed him a year ago. I am particularly sensitive to severity and risks of this illness. If you look at the anecdotal information passed around in the popular press on this study you will find that they claim that people who consumed soda regularly over prolonged periods of time were, according to that study, 87% more likely to contract pancreatic cancer. However, in that same study, they point out that people who consumed juice had no greater incidence of pancreatic cancer. Juice typically has an even higher sugar content and calorie count than even traditional soda. (Granted, the sugar is naturally occurring and was not “added”—but nevertheless, it is THERE.) So, people who drank soda got pancreatic cancer, but people who drank juice (with MORE sugar and calories) did not. Conclusion (according to that study): it was the SUGAR in soda that got people sick. I have not seen anyone in the press call them on this. I still can’t figure out why. In addition, did anyone ever stop to think that people who drink traditional soda everyday may also be more likely to have other unhealthy habits that are contributing factors (such as smoking or lack of exercise)?? Here’s my favorite part: what about the OTHER ingredients in traditional soda?? They often contain artificial sweeteners, preservatives like potassium sorbate or sodium benzoate, and many other artificial ingredients. Is there any chance that any of those chemicals might contribute to a greater incidence in cancer? Not according to that “study”—it’s the sugar. Just the sugar, everyone. Calories kill. I guess we all need to stop eating.
At Snow Beverages we pride ourselves on making healthy products. I have been a vegetarian since 1980 (when I was 14) and I am committed to never making a product that contains any ingredient that is unhealthy. Is sugar unhealthy? No. Is TOO MUCH sugar unhealthy? Of course. However, as I stated earlier, orange juice has substantially more calories than our soda. Is orange juice unhealthy?Â….
Traditional soda contains unhealthy ingredients. We simply don’t use them. Diet soda contains many ingredients that I would never let me family consume. I have two five year old twin sons. I have absolutely no problem with them drinking a little Snow Natural Soda + Vitamins. I would never let them drink traditional diet soda. Rather than have our children misled and pushed into drinking diet soda (with it’s chemical artificial sweeteners and it’s preservatives that some claim are low-level carcinogens) why not teach them to look at health from an overarching and global perspective? Let’s be responsible and teach them to be as well. They should eat balanced and healthy diets. They should try and avoid chemical ingredients. They need to exercise regularly. If they do this, they will not become obese. Taxing soda won’t save them. It will temporarily put some money in the depleted state coffers and then it may have a myriad of other negative long-term economic effects (such as layoffs at local soda manufacturers, a strain on already-strapped low income families, etc.) but this “band-aid” attempt to raise revenue that is posing as some sort of “quick-fix” for the health and obesity problems in our state and our world, is really nothing more than an ill-founded and misrepresented lie.
The “Alliance for a Healthier NY” has a website. According to my two-minute search for the domain name on Go Daddy it appears to have been registered as recently as February 4th of 2010. There is no way I could find to contact them. I would be interested to know who is funding them. On their site, there are a plethora of FAQs addressing many of the major questions related to this issue. I find them to be extremely biased, one-sided and in fact, in many cases, rather misleading. Below are a few examples, along with my comments below their answers:
Q. What are sugar-sweetened beverages?
AHNYN Answer: For the proposed tax, sugar-sweetened beverages are soft drinks that contain more that 10 calories per 8 ounces. They include sweetened water, soda, sports drinks, “energy” drinks, colas, sweetened bottled coffee or tea, and sweetened fruit or vegetable drinks containing less than 70% natural fruit or vegetable juice. Milk, milk products, milk substitutes, dietary aids, and infant formula are exempt.
StuÂ’s Comment: So, for some reason if it is juice or milk-based the amount of calories is suddenly unimportant?? This seems arbitrary and absurd, and purely politically-minded.
Q. Why tax only sugar-sweetened beverages? Other foods, like Twinkies and Ding Dongs, provide empty calories.
AHNYN Answer: There is significant evidence linking sugar-sweetened beverage consumption with obesity and other health problems. Studies that follow people for a long time show that people who consume more sugar-sweetened beverages gain more weight. One article that reviewed many studies found that drinking sugar-sweetened beverages had the strongest link with overweight and obesity, more than any other food-related behavior. When people drink a sugar-sweetened beverage, they do not compensate (i.e., reduce their concomitant or subsequent caloric intake) for the additional calories from the drink. So the calories from the drink become “extra” calories.
Stu’s Comment: Do I even need to respond? I guess they are claiming that soda is “the worst” and they just sort of “skip over” the question about Ding Dongs. If they actually care about health and/or obesity, why not tax Ding Dongs too? [By the way, out of respect for the Ding Dong people I would like to point out that I didn’t reference their brand—they did…]
Q. ShouldnÂ’t all sodas be taxed, diet and non-diet? Diet sodas are not good for people, either.
AHNYN Answer: While drinking diet soda is not recommended, the evidence linking its consumption with poor health outcomes and/or obesity is weaker than the evidence for sugar-sweetened sodas. The most healthful drinks are water and low-fat or fat-free milk.
Stu’s Comment: What study done by independent researchers concluded that taxing soda will force people to give it up, avoid diet soda, and somehow switch to milk (wait—only low-fat milk, since regular milk isn’t being taxed either) and water??? Clearly this has nothing to really do with “health” or diet soda, which is, in my opinion, dramatically more unhealthy than consuming some natural cane sugar, would be taxed doubly. In addition, I guess they missed the studies that claim that diet soda confuses the sweetness receptors in the brain and leads to the body’s mismanagement of sugar and insulin levels. Some claim that diet soda actually ends up backfiring and causing more obesity than it prevents. There is all sorts of data saying that people who drink diet soda are more likely to be obese. I wouldn’t quote those sources because I think that is also confusing, but let’s not pretend that diet soda is some kind of magic cure for obesity.
Q. WonÂ’t taxing non-diet soda just encourage people to drink diet soda, which is not really a healthier alternative?
AHNYN Answer: With increased public awareness surrounding the tax, we expect people to switch to healthier beverages like water and low-fat milk.
StuÂ’s Comment: Why? The assumptions here are unbridledÂ….
Q. ArenÂ’t people opposed to a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages?
AHNYN Answer: A majority of New York adults support a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages. In a poll conducted by the Healthcare Education Project in January of 2010, 78% of the people polled supported a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages if the revenue raised was to be used to prevent healthcare cuts.
Stu’s Comment: So…. I guess they are certain that the people of the state of NY aren’t actually concerned about those “health care cuts” they reference in passing and completely (in my humble opinion) twist out of context.
The fact is, people should eat and drink healthy and natural products. Taxing any beverage that has sugar in it (even natural cane sugar) will not solve any widespread health problem or any obesity problem. It may cause more economic damage than it provides in tax revenues. Furthermore, it detracts from a comprehensive and responsible dialogue on these important and timely issues or their actual solutions. DonÂ’t be fooled.
–Stu Strumwasser
CEO of Refreshiliciousness
Snow Beverages, Inc.[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by philly news now, Yancey @YanceyG. Yancey @YanceyG said: Anti-soda tax protesters gather outside of City Hall: Photo | Lara Coleman Coca-Cola employees, restaurant ... http://bit.ly/dCBwgG [...]
I'm glad to see this protest covered. Great job!
[...] Anti-soda tax protesters gather outside of City Hall :: The Clog … [...]
[...] Anti-soda tax protesters gather outside οf City Hall :: Tһе Clog … [...]
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