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It wasn’t that way back when cigarettes and soda had been go-to comfort retailer vices, glamorized in films and advertised towards, smartly, everybody.
New UC Berkeley analysis suggests sugar-sweetened drinks could also be on a identical trail.
The town of Berkeley’s first-in-the-nation soda tax a decade in the past, at the side of more moderen Bay House tax will increase on sugar-sweetened beverages, have now not handiest resulted in diminished gross sales. They’re additionally related to important adjustments in social norms and attitudes in regards to the healthfulness of candy beverages, mentioned Kristine A. Madsen, a professor at UC Berkeley’s Faculty of Public Well being and senior writer of a paper printed Nov. 25 within the magazine BMC Public Well being.
Over the span of only some years, taxes coupled with important media consideration considerably affected the general public’s general perceptions of sugar-sweetened drinks, which come with sodas, some juices and sports activities beverages. The sort of shift within the casual regulations surrounding how other folks suppose and act can have primary implications for public well being efforts extra widely, Madsen mentioned.
“Social norms are really powerful. The significant shift we saw in how people are thinking about sugary drinks demonstrates what else we could do,” Madsen mentioned. “We could reimagine a healthier food system. It starts with people thinking, “Why drink such a lot soda?” But what if we also said, “Why is not many of the meals in our grocery retail outlets meals that makes us wholesome?’”
Madsen and associates from UC San Francisco and UC Davis analyzed surveys from 9,128 other folks residing in lower-income neighborhoods in Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco and Richmond. The use of information from 2016 to 2019 and 2021, they studied year-to-year tendencies in other folks’s belief of sugar-sweetened drinks.
They sought after to know how the 4 taxes within the Bay House may have affected social norms surrounding sugary drinks—the unwritten and steadily unstated regulations that affect the foods and drinks we purchase, the garments we put on and our conduct on the dinner desk. Even though social norms are not visual, they’re extremely robust forces on our movements and behaviors; simply ask someone who has purchased one thing after an influencer promoted it on TikTok or Instagram.
Researchers requested questions on how steadily other folks idea their neighbors drank sodas, sports activities beverages and fruity drinks. Contributors additionally rated how wholesome a number of beverages had been, which conveyed their very own attitudes in regards to the drinks.
The researchers discovered a 28% decline within the social acceptability of consuming sugar-sweetened drinks.
In Oakland, certain perceptions of associates’ intake of sports activities beverages declined after the tax building up, relative to different towns. In a similar way, in San Francisco, attitudes in regards to the healthfulness of sugar-sweetened fruit beverages additionally declined.
In different phrases, other folks believed their neighbors were not consuming as many sugar-sweetened drinks, which affected their very own pastime in eating soda, juices and sports activities beverages.
“What it means when social norms change is that people say, “Gosh, I suppose we do not drink soda. That is simply now not what we do. Now not as a lot. Now not at all times,’” Madsen said. “And that is the reason a great shift in mindsets.”
The analysis is the most recent from UC Berkeley that examines how intake patterns have modified within the decade since Berkeley carried out the country’s first soda tax. A 2016 find out about discovered a lower in soda intake and an building up in other folks turning to water. Analysis in 2019 documented a pointy decline in other folks turning to sugar-sweetened beverages. And previous this yr, Berkeley researchers documented that sugar-sweetened beverage purchases declined dramatically and incessantly throughout 5 primary American towns after taxes had been installed position.
The penny-per-ounce tax on drinks, which is levied on vendors of sugary beverages—who in the end cross that value of doing industry directly to shoppers—is crucial approach of speaking about well being with the general public, Madsen mentioned. Researchers tallied greater than 700 media tales in regards to the taxes on sugar-sweetened drinks all through the find out about duration. That degree of messaging used to be most probably a big pressure in riding public consciousness and norms.
It is also one thing Madsen mentioned long term public well being interventions should imagine. It used to be a part of the development made in chopping cigarette smoking and appears to be operating with sugary beverages. And it is the ones interventions that can result in particular person motion.
“If we change our behaviors, the environment follows,” Madsen mentioned. “While policy really matters and is incredibly important, we as individuals have to advocate for a healthier food system.”
Additional information:
Emily Altman et al, De-normalizing sugar-sweetened beverage intake: results of tax measures on social norms and attitudes within the California Bay House, BMC Public Well being (2024). DOI: 10.1186/s12889-024-20781-6
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Soda taxes do not simply impression gross sales. They lend a hand alternate other folks’s minds. (2024, December 10)
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Publish date : 2024-12-10 23:48:58
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