PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A new nationwide study of 5 million pregnant women found that those who live in cities with sweetened beverage taxes have improved health, and their babies are healthier as well.
The health impacts of sweetened beverage taxes are hard to establish because they take years to emerge, but pregnancy is a relatively short window to study. So, Dr. Justin White and a team of researchers from the University of California-San Francisco studied national birth record data for the years before and after soda taxes were adopted in five cities.
“We looked at what were the changes over time in a number of different outcomes for the health of pregnant women as well as their infants and compared women in cities that have sugary beverage taxes to cities where those taxes were not in place,” he said.
Researchers found a 41% lower risk of gestational diabetes in mothers who lived in cities with soda taxes, and a 39% lower risk of infants born small for their gestational age.
related
According to the study, improvements were greatest in Philadelphia. Philadelphia’s tax is higher than other cities, such as Seattle and San Francisco, and consumption fell more, White hypothesized.
Philadelphia, of course, did not adopt the sweetened beverage tax in 2016 for health reasons. It was established to raise money for poverty alleviation programs, including universal pre-K. But White’s colleague, Dean Schillinger, said the evidence shows it is improving health nonetheless.
“The tax will not only benefit the children who are getting free early childhood schooling but the adults who will benefit from diseases they don’t acquire because of that reduced consumption,” he said.
A sweetened beverage tax is also in effect in Berkeley and Oakland, California.
Related
Related
