Public Policies to Address Obesity: Pediatric Obesity 2017

With pension plans, when employees must opt in (default is not enrolled), about 50% enroll; when employees are enrolled by default but can opt out, enrollment approaches 100%.

In countries using opt-out organ donation (default is donor status), consent rates reach 99.98%; in countries using opt-in systems like the US, rates are much lower.

When people consume calories in liquid form, they tend not to feel as full and tend to overconsume compared to consuming the same number of calories in solid form.

Using a tax calculator algorithm, the state of California would generate more than a billion dollars per year from a 1-cent-per-ounce sugar-sweetened beverage tax.

Mayor Nutter of Philadelphia introduced a soda tax focused on health benefits and came very close to passage but did not succeed; Mayor Kenny later succeeded by framing it around funding early childhood education.

A tax of about 1 penny per ounce increases beverage price by about 15% and is expected to reduce consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages by about 15%.

Evaluations in Mexico and Berkeley show that sugar-sweetened beverage taxes are being passed along to consumers and affecting behavior; in Mexico, there has been an increase in water consumption.

Tobacco taxes have an especially powerful effect on youth because youth tend to have less expendable resources than adults and are therefore particularly price sensitive.

Philadelphia's sugar-sweetened beverage tax is 1.5 cents per ounce, which is 50% higher than the penny-per-ounce tax used in Berkeley.

Heavy subsidies for commodity crops like corn and soybeans began in the Nixon administration, leading to low-cost ingredients that the food industry processed into snack foods, salty foods, beverages, and high fructose corn syrup.

The next revision of the food label is expected to include added sugar on the nutrition facts panel, similar to how trans fats were added before being banned.

National legislation is expected to require calorie labeling on menus of all chain restaurants around the country.

Research on changes in school nutrition standards has been very positive; kids not only eat healthier foods in school but also tend to eat somewhat healthier at home.

Anecdotal cases of kids not liking healthier school foods and throwing them away tend to be temporary, especially with younger kids developing eating habits.

In the 280 schools in Maine's 5210 program, when healthy foods are put in front of kids in a positive way, they eat them; adults and teachers have a harder time adjusting.

The US government spends $4 billion worth of SNAP benefits on soda every year.

The obesity public health community and hunger advocacy community are at an impasse over restricting sugar-sweetened beverages in SNAP benefits, with both sides having dug in their heels.

New York City proposed a pilot study to test adjusted SNAP benefits excluding sugar-sweetened beverages, but USDA declined, saying New York was too big for a pilot study.

Economists in Chicago found that soda taxes would probably lead to a little bit of job improvement rather than job loss because jobs would be created in other sectors.