GLOBAL FOOD REPORTER
Are you drinking yourself fat?
If you're a regular soft-drink tippler, New York health officials are out to make you think so.
With the release this week of a series of a stomach-churning Internet videos in which a man is shown guzzling a tumbler of liquefied fat, city officials moved to escalate a budding international war on sugary beverages aimed at discouraging consumption and tempering rising levels of obesity.
The soft-drink battlefront in Manhattan originally began taking shape in August, when officials with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene launched a print campaign that asked, "Are you pouring on the pounds?" and depicted soft and other sweetened drinks transforming into red-veined streams of fat.
Labelled "health bulletins," the ads spurred the debate over soft drinks' culpability for North America's widespread obesity.
When the sequel - the gag-inducing, fat-guzzling video - was released over the Internet this week, its shock value drove a viral spread that went well beyond New York's city limits.
"Sugary drinks shouldn't be a part of our everyday diets," said New York health commissioner Thomas Farley. "This video is playful, but the message is serious. Sugar-sweetened beverages are fuelling the obesity epidemic."
The video further stirred frustrations in the beverage industry, which likens the assault to that once waged against cigarette companies.
For months they have battled against the banning of their products in school vending machines, and they've mounted a significant lobby in Washington to counter calls for a federal consumption tax on sugary soft drinks that has caught the attention of President Barack Obama.
Research published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine (co-authored by New York's Dr. Farley) has backed the notion, suggesting a beverage tax might not only raise revenue, but also lower consumption, drive weight loss and reduce obesity-related health risks.
Now industry members are harping on another point: They insist there is no definitive link between fat and soft drinks in spite of what the New York ads say.
"They're talking about fat and not calories. Our products are fat-free," said Justin Sherwood, president of Refreshments Canada, a trade organization representing several major beverage companies and bottlers. "Obesity is a complex issue that is not caused by one single food or beverage."
The American Beverage Association released a statement suggesting city health officials should focus on teaching people to balance their calorie intake instead of vilifying soft drinks.
"If the goal is to reduce obesity among New Yorkers, then this public education campaign should be based in fact, not simply sensationalized video that inaccurately portrays our industry's products - products that are fat-free," the statement said, adding: "There is no miracle diet for weight loss. Calories matter when it comes to losing weight."
In the academic sphere, there is disagreement over the precise terms of the relationship between excessive consumption of sugar and body weight. Industry members prefer to cite a 2005 Queen's University study of children's obesity rates across 34 countries that did not find a link between obesity and soft-drink consumption. However, the study co-authored by New York's Dr. Farley and published last October suggests there is indeed a link.
Regardless, New York officials, who have developed a reputation as food-policy pioneers (they have implemented a pioneering law compelling restaurant chains to post calorie counts on menus and forced restaurants to phase out trans fats) are forging ahead.
Health and nutrition advocates say their effort should be applauded - and backed by more significant funding.
"They're certainly doing more than any other health department in the country," said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group with offices in Washington and Toronto that favours a soft-drink tax. He said it is "entirely appropriate" for governments to issue health warnings about sugary products.
"The government has a very important role in promoting health. Soft drinks are a major cause of weight gain," he said, adding: "Ideally Health Canada will look very closely at what New York City is doing."
