Soda Warning Labels Could Soon Be a Thing in California

Sugar is bad for you. Your mom
probably warned you that it would rot your teeth. We now know that
excessive sugar consumption can lead to much
more insidious health problems, such as Alzheimer’s disease and
diabetes. It’s also likely to make you fat. 

I wish Americans would cut down on sugar (and food companies
would stop adding sugar to everything from soup to bread to
barbecue sauce). But I also wish American politicians would stop
trying to enact futile, overreaching policies to force sugar
consumption down. The latest of these
comes from California, where legislators are rushing to be the
first in the nation to mandate warning labels on sugar-sweetened
beverages. 

Much like the warning labels that appear on cigarette packaging,
these labels would read:

STATE OF CALIFORNIA SAFETY WARNING: Drinking beverages
with added sugar(s) contributes to obesity, diabetes, and tooth
decay.

If enacted, California Senate Bill 1000 would require this
warning be added to the front label of all beverages that contain
added sweeteners and more than 75 calories per 12 ounces. It would
also be required on self-serve soda dispensers and on restaurant
menus. The measure was approved by the Senate Health Committee this
week.

“The bill is a common sense measure that is overwhelmingly
supported by the public,” said California Sent. Bill Monning
(D-Carmel). Common sense?

Sure, it is common sense that
sugar can contribute to weight gain and tooth
decay—which makes the proposed labels all the more
nonsensical. Just in case you forgot, this thing you’re
consuming—like many, many things at the grocery store—could lead to
weight gain and other bad shit if you have too much of
it! Um, okay? Thanks for the obvious and unnecessary
heads-up!

Ostensibly, the measure has broad bipartisan support in
California. A February 2014 poll found
nearly 75 percent of California voters said they support
warning labels on sugary beverages (but that poll was also paid for
by the California Endowment, a group campaigning in favor of the
labels). 

“The public is really supportive of disclosure in various
forms—they tend to believe the public health community, and when
they issue health warnings, they want that information out and
known to the public,” said Mark DiCamillo, director of the
nonpartisan research organization that handled the California
Endowment poll. 

Disclosure in this case, however, requires
prominent advertising the amounts of sugar and calories in a
beverage—not vague, mealy-mouthed scaremongering. Monning’s
proposed soda warning labels don’t actually disclose any concrete
relevant information at all.