The Association Between Sugar-Sweetened Beverages and Child Obesity: Implications for US Policy

The US government has recently implemented four policies designed to reduce the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) in children. These are: (1) the introduction of an excise tax on SSBs, (2) regulations of marketing of SSBs to children; (3) policies designed to reduce SSB availability in schools; and (4) enhanced nutrition labeling of SSBs. The goal of this chapter is to understand whether the potential effects of these policies on child obesity outweigh any ethical concerns with their implementation. In order to do this, we will first describe and evaluate the evidence that a reduction in SSB intake will reduce obesity risk in children. Second, we will describe, in turn, the rationale for each policy, including evidence that they will reduce either child SSB consumption or child obesity risk. In our concluding section, we will discuss the ethical and financial implications of government policies to reduce SSB consumption and use these in addition to the evidence already described to make recommendations regarding future policy.