Home » Media Centre » Letters to the Editor

Letter to the Editor (Globe and Mail):

In response to Jeffrey Simpson's overly simplistic view of proposed Soft Drink taxes in the United States, the Canadian beverage industry would like to offer the following observations. 
 
Experts will tell you that the causes of obesity are complex and that the solutions lie in encouraging healthy active lifestyles that balance calories in to calories out.  In fact, no single food or food ingredient can be held responsible for weight gain - the human body does not differentiate the source of calories consumed.  Rather, the body either uses these calories to produce energy in active people or store them as fat in inactive people.  
 
Policy makers should not make the grossly irresponsible and false parallel to tobacco as a rationale for singling out one particular product for taxation or regulatory action; a move that will not make a dent in a problem as complex as obesity.  This false parallel is adequately demonstrated by US data over the last decade that shows obesity rates are rising while soft drink sales are declining annually.
 
The current focus on soft drinks in the United States is about raising tax revenues, wrapped in the guise of public health, for struggling state and federal governments.

For more information, please contact:
 
Justin Sherwood
President
Refreshments Canada

Back