Soda Ban Debate

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Ryan Witt Doug Peterson ENC1101 December 5, 2014 The Soda Ban Act With portion sizes at chain-restaurants skyrocketing 457 percent over the last 20 years, it’s not hard to believe that in 2030 an estimated 42 percent of Americans will be obese. Statistics like this are what began the Soda Ban’s evolution. In the efforts to “help people help themselves by simply saying ‘No.’” as Nadia Arumugam would say, the soda ban restricts or puts a limit on the size drink Americans can purchase at most food franchises. However, will restricting the public of what they desire ultimately control the consumption of sugary beverages? The world can only advance through education, thus the Soda Ban’s restriction on sugary drinks contributed towards a…show more content…
"The campaign, 'Rethink Your Drink,' takes aim at sugary drinks like soda, sports drinks and fake ‘juices’.” A 2012 survey of over 600 Hawaii teenagers revealed that 93 percent reported consuming sugary drinks every week, and 48 percent said they had a sugary drink every day. (Twenty-seven percent of teenagers and over half of adults in Hawaii are overweight or obese.)" Led by the Department of Health, Hawaii hopes to reach out to 100% of its teenagers to educate about the sugary drinks being consumed. In the effort to teach as opposed to restrict, this campaign has shown a greater decline in obesity rates. The secret is using a 'gross' method which depicts teenagers drinking bottles of lard with fat flowing down their faces. This method has proved to cause a decrease in obesity rates among teenagers in the state of Hawaii. Additionally, a director from the Department of Health, Loretta Fuddy, believes, "Rethink Your Drink has had a significant impact on behavior change among our teens. This type of public education is essential to improving health and wellness, as it gives teens the information they need to make healthy choices in their everyday lives." Although the majority of teens reported drinking sugary drinks every week, the ‘Rethink Your Drink’ campaign used such a…show more content…
The restrictions on sugary drinks contributed towards a branch out of many educational campaigns. The most influential campaign that caused the greatest decrease in obesity rates was ‘Rethink Your Drink’ proposed by the Hawaii Department of Health. Furthermore, limiting the size people can purchase sugary drinks will help stop the growth of beverage portions in the restaurant industry. Chain-restaurants have increased their beverage portion sizes monumentally over the past few decades, and bigger portion sizes have been proven to lead to greater consumption. Surely people will learn from the restrictions put on detrimental drinks, understand the dangers that come from drinking such large quantities of sugary beverages, and how harmful they can be towards the

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