The sour truth about the excesses of sweet drinks

Four Chicago-area hospitals declare a ban on sugar-loaded beverages, including soda and some juice drinks.

The Chicago City Council holds hearings on a proposed special tax for sugary beverages. Cook County launches a “Rethink Your Drink” public education campaign.

The mayor of New York City touches off a nationwide furor when he proposes a ban on the sale of sodas and similar drinks in containers larger than 16 ounces.

The Walt Disney Co. announces that it will no longer accept junk food and soft drink advertising.

What’s going on here? A full-frontal assault by government on the drinking habits of everyday Americans? Could be. More to the point, it could become even more intense if we don’t change some of our habits and those of our kids. Consider these facts, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Illinois Public Health Institute and other health experts:

Ÿ The obesity rate in Illinois was 15.3 percent in 1995. It was nearly twice that in 2010.

Ÿ Illinois’ obesity rate is fourth highest in the country, behind only Mississippi, Georgia and Kentucky.

Ÿ Sugar-loaded beverages may account for up to 40 percent of all weight gained by Americans between 1997 and 2007.

Ÿ Obesity costs the Illinois health care system and Illinois taxpayers nearly $3.4 billion a year and some experts think the annual cost could reach $14 billion by 2018.

Ÿ Obesity, defined as a person with a body mass index of 30 or higher (about 203 pounds for a person 5 feet 9 inches tall), is directly linked to increases in diabetes, heart disease, liver disease and arthritis.

We could go on. But the key facts to remember are that obesity is a serious and growing health care problem affecting everyone in Illinois and in America; that non-diet soft drinks, sports drinks and artificially sugared juice drinks contribute to the problem; and that if consumers don’t get serious about addressing it soon, government will.

The issue of sugar consumption is wrapped up in a complex debate that encompasses topics as broad as individual freedom in food choices and as narrow as subsidies for corn syrup and sugar producers in U.S. farm bills. Increasingly, it is finding its way into specific local tax proposals, notably in Chicago and Cook County.

At hearings on one such proposal in the city last month, public health Commissioner Dr. Bechara Choucair said, “Now some might ask, ‘What’s wrong with a little sugar every now and then?’ And the answer is nothing — if it’s a little and if it’s every now and then.”

Choucair went on to note, though, that the average American consumes 42 pounds of sugar annually just through sugary drinks.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposed ban on bucket-sized soft drinks set off a nationwide furor last week, much of it focused on the mayor’s apparent intrusion into what is perceived as a benign personal choice whose only real impact is the embarrassment of a few extra pounds. There is certainly room to criticize Bloomberg’s nanny-state approach, but to the extent the discussion focuses more on government overreach than on public health, we do a serious disservice.

For the evidence is growing ever clearer that obesity — which has direct links to portion sizes of sugar-loaded foods and beverages — is a much more insidious health risk than public perception admits and that it is not just an embarrassment for its victims but also a quantifiable cost drain on every citizen.

So, yes, it is no doubt ridiculous to be thinking about forbidding consumption of sugary drinks in public places or requiring drinkers to stand 15 feet away from the entrance to a business. But it is past time for each of us, personally at least, to launch a serious assault on the issue of how much sugar we are drinking.