Learning lessons from Berkeley, CA: Analyzing roll out of nation’s first sugary beverage tax

Anna Grummon headshot

Harvard Pop Center’s Bell Fellow Anna Grummon, PhD, is an author on this study published in the American Journal of Public Health that analyzes what factors helped to facilitate (and impede) this public policy that generated more than $9 million for public health, nutrition, and health equity through 2021.

Warning: The findings of this analysis could help to shape public policies that require warning labels on sugary drinks

Anna Grummon headshot

Harvard Bell Fellow Anna H. Grummon, PhD, and her colleague Marissa G. Hall, PhD, of the University of North Carolina, have published a meta-analysis in PLOS Medicine examining the effects of sugary beverage warning labels on changing behavior, emotions, attitudes, and perceptions. The researchers synthesized the findings of twenty-three experiments conducted across multiple countries. They found that across these experimental studies, sugary drink warnings not only reduced purchases of sugary…

Sweetening the deal: Taxing a sweetened beverage by amount of sugar it contains could lead to health & economic gains

Jar of sugary syrup

Anna Grummon, PhD, a Harvard Bell Fellow in the 2019-2021 cohort, is among the authors of an analysis published in the journal Science. The researchers conclude that health and economic gains could be better realized by taxing the sugar content of those beverages, rather than taxing the amount of liquid in the drinks. Learn more in this news post by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Consumption of sugar sweetened beverages is down, but still too high among some groups

A study by Harvard Pop Center faculty member Sara Bleich, PhD, published in the journal Obesity finds that while the consumption of sugar sweetened beverages is on the decline among both children and adults, it is still too high among adolescents and young adults, and certain racial and ethnic minority populations. Learn more in The New York Times, The Guardian, and on the Harvard Chan School website.

Youths getting too much screen time face increased exposure to obesity-related risk factors

Harvard Pop Center faculty member Steven Gortmaker, PhD, is co-author on a study that has found that teens who spend 5 hours or more per day behind a screen (e.g., tablet, computer, videogame, smartphone, television) face greater exposure to obesity and/or risk factors for obesity such as increased sugar-sweetened beverage consumption, and inadequate physical activity and sleep.

Is Juice Gateway Drink to Higher BMI?

Pop Center affiliated faculty members Matthew Gillman, MD, and Elsie Taveras, MD, have published a study in Obesity that examines the significance of beverage consumption during infancy and childhood and found that higher juice intake during infancy (at one year) was associated with higher juice and sugar-sweetened beverage intake and higher BMI during early and mid-childhood. The findings suggest that early juice intake could be a target for obesity prevention,…

Gortmaker Looks for Cost-Effective Solutions to Childhood Obesity

Harvard Pop Center affiliated faculty member Steven Gortmaker, PhD, is principal investigator on CHOICES Project (Childhood Obesity Intervention Cost-Effectiveness Study), a 3-year study that will evaluate the cost-effectiveness of 40 interventions designed to prevent childhood obesity.