A study published in The Lancet in early April reveals a global obesity time bomb. For the first time in history, more of the Earth’s population is obese than underweight.
Chronic health problems associated with “globesity” are also skyrocketing, including diabetes, heart disease, and some cancers.
Numerous factors are implicated in this epidemic, but one potent factor stands out for its cynicism—a massive effort by the soda industry to peddle sugary soft drinks in the developing world, especially to young people.
The cause-effect relationship between obesity and heavy consumption of sugary soda is beyond dispute. The human body treats the sugar calories in beverages differently from those in foods. Because sugary drinks aren’t as filling, people tend to drink them without compensating by eating less later in the day.
Also, the sheer volume of sugar in these drinks is remarkably high. Consuming just one 12-ounce can of Coke or Pepsi—each with almost 10 teaspoons of sugar (high fructose corn syrup)—daily equals more than 30 pounds of sugar over the course of a year.
Thanks to increased public awareness of their health harm, consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages is stagnant or declining in Europe and North America. The greatest decline has been here in the United States, where per-capita consumption has dropped a remarkable 25 percent since 1998.
But just like their tobacco and alcohol colleagues before them, The Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc. have reacted to slower sales in wealthy countries by doubling down on marketing their least-healthy products in low- and middle-income countries. (Between them, the two companies control more than two-thirds of the $340 billion annual market in global soft drink sales.)
