The cost of childhood obesity
July 22, 2014 -- What’s the most cost-effective way to prevent childhood obesity? Is it by taxing sugary beverages? Requiring more physical education classes in schools? Eliminating the corporate tax deduction for marketing and advertising when it comes…
Boston teams with supermarkets to promote healthy beverages
A new partnership between the City of Boston and most of the city’s large supermarkets aims to help consumers choose healthier and less sugary beverages with a color-coded “Rethink Your Drink” campaign in stores and weekly circulars. Harvard…
SNAP program fails to boost consumption of healthy foods
November 25, 2013 — The federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has failed to boost the nutritional value of food purchased and consumed by recipients or to improve food security (ensuring participants have food to meet household needs),…
Healthy Drinks
In the beginning, there was water—abundant, refreshing, providing everything the body needs to replenish the fluids it loses. Humans relied on it as the only beverage for millions of years. Milk was introduced with the advent of agriculture…
Sugary Drinks
Sugary drinks (also categorized as sugar-sweetened beverages or “soft” drinks) refer to any beverage with added sugar or other sweeteners (high fructose corn syrup, sucrose, fruit juice concentrates, and more). This includes soda, pop, cola, tonic, fruit punch,…
Added Sugar
Your body doesn’t need to get any carbohydrate from added sugar. That’s why the Healthy Eating Pyramid says sugary drinks and sweets should be used sparingly, if at all, and the Healthy Eating Plate does not include foods…
Questioning calcium, regulating sugary drinks, evaluating supplements
Walter Willett, Fredrick John Stare Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition and chair of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health, recently spoke with the website Medpage Today for its “Conversations with …” video interview series.…
Roughly 180,000 deaths worldwide linked to sugary drink consumption
New Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) research suggests that roughly 180,000 obesity-related deaths worldwide—including 25,000 Americans—are associated with the consumption of sugary drinks. The abstract, presented at an American Heart Association scientific conference in New Orleans, linked…
New York’s sugary drink ban struck down
Coverage on WBUR’s On Point, March 12, 2013, featuring HSPH's Walter Willett
HSPH researchers support petition calling for limits on added sugars in beverages
The amount of added sugars in soda and other sweetened beverages needs to be regulated, according to a Washington, D.C.-based nutrition advocacy group—and many Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers agree. The Center for Science in the…