You Don't Need a Soda Ban to Cut Back on Sugary Calories

This ad may look familiar if you have been riding a New York City subway recently. Mayor Bloomberg’s focus on childhood and adult obesity is hard not to notice, and this campaign against the empty calories provided in sugar sweetened-beverages is definitely a step in the right direction. 

Unfortunately for Bloomberg, his efforts just took two steps back.  In late August, the USDA rejected the Mayor’s proposed plan to ban the use of food stamps, now known as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits, to purchase soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages in New York City. The ban was part of a two-year experiment that the Major had proposed as a way to fight the city’s increasing obesity epidemic.

Over 1.7 million New York City residents are on food stamps and 59.3% of New York City residents over 25 years old were obese as of 2009. But it is the inability to measure a relationship between those two figures that the USDA states as the reason why they denied the Mayor’s proposal. If we cannot measure change, how do we know our efforts are working?

But rather than focus on a need for a ban, why not instead consider what your grocery dollars go to towards rather than those sugary juices and sodas? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 20 people drinks the equivalent of 4 or more cans of soda per day. A 12-pack of 12-oz cans of Coca-Cola costs $5.29. * That breaks down to a cost of 0.44¢/can or a total of $1.76 for the 4 daily sodas. (In a typical vending machine, the cost increases to $1.00/can or $4.00 for your daily fix). 

Consider what else you could get in the grocery aisles for $1.76:

• 2 Granny Smith Apples (0.79¢ each)
• 1 box of Minute Brand Instant Brown Rice ($1.79 each)
• 1 10oz bag of Stop & Shop brand Spinach ($1.79 each)

Any of these choices will offer you a wealth of vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients that are lacking in the soda. And what are you missing out on? The 560 empty calories provided by the Coca-Cola. Even at $1.76 for 4 cans, that doesn’t sound like a bargain to me.

* Figure according to Peapod by Stop & Shop for the Boston-area