‘In 10 years we'll be saying I can't believe restaurants served these crappy meals to six-year olds’
The CSPI’s Margo Wootan, meanwhile, noted that, “We're not born with an innate desire to drink 60 oz sodas. That's been cultivated via marketing & placement.”
And while food companies are fond of wheeling out voluntary initiatives such as calorie labeling on soda, reduced ‘junk food’ marketing to kids, and the provision of healthier snacks in schools, as examples of how proactive they have been, these things only came about because of relentless pressure from advocacy groups such as the CSPI, claimed Wootan.
“Not so long ago people were saying we just have to teach kids about healthy eating, but let’s leave the candy and the soda in the vending machines. Now that sounds crazy.”
And while the progress of ex-NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s 16oz soda ban has been thwarted at every turn, a number of state and local jurisdictions are proposing obesity-cutting measures from soda taxes to setting nutritional standards for kids’ meals in restaurants, she said.
“People seem to think it’s laughable that we could set nutrition standards for restaurants [via regulatory measures], but while it seems like a novel idea now, in 10 years' time, we'll be saying 'I can't believe restaurants served these crappy meals to six-year olds'.”