Free Republic

You’ve decided to give up diet soda—good idea! Maybe you weren’t hitting your weight-loss goals or couldn’t stomach that long list of ingredients anymore. Or perhaps you heard one too many times that it’s just not good for you. Whatever the reason, eliminating diet soda from your diet will improve your health from head to toe. Research on diet soda is still in its infancy, but there’s enough out there to identify what you can look forward to when you put down the can and cool down with an unsweetened iced tea instead.

An update on this story. “Shuttle America Flight 3504,” United Airlines, June 3, 2015: While United did not operate the flight, Ms. Ahmad was our customer and we apologize to her for what occurred on the flight. After investigating this matter, United has ensured that the flight attendant, a Shuttle America employee, will no longer serve United customers.

Now that calorie counts on restaurant menus are a done deal, it's time to take the next step toward slimming America's flabby waistline.. A national soda tax. I know, I know: This is the kind of nanny-state talk that causes seizures among conservatives and libertarians. It's an intrusion on personal freedom, a trampling of consumer choice, blah-blah-blah. It's also, as we've learned from taxes on cigarettes and alcohol, a highly effective method of influencing behavior that carries high social costs.

Voters in Berkeley, Calif., have passed the nation’s first soda tax with a resounding 75 percent of the vote. The measure aims to reduce the effects of sugar consumption on health, especially increased rates of obesity and diabetes. It will levy a penny-per-ounce tax on most sugar-sweetened beverages and is estimated to raise more than $1 million per year. Proceeds will go to the general fund; Measure D calls for the creation of a health panel to advise Berkeley’s City Council on appropriate health programs to receive funding. Campaign Co-Chair Jack Daniels called Berkeley’s win a tipping point. “I think...

Berkeley, California, one of the most liberal cities in the nation, have overwhelmingly approved the nation's first 'sugar tax,' which will raise the cost of sodas and energy drinks by one penny per ounce. A similar tax in neighboring San Francisco, which would have levied two cents per ounce, failed to pass - gaining 55percent of the vote, short of the two-thirds majority needed. The Berkeley tax would raise the cost of a can of Pepsi from $1 to $1.12, but bigger fountain drinks would get hit harder. A large Coke from McDonald's would go from $2.29 to $2.61. A...

Proposition E, a 2 cent per ounce tax on the purchase of sugary beverages that was heavily opposed by the American Beverage Association, was defeated at the polls Tuesday when fewer than two-thirds of voters supported the proposal. The tax was proposed to combat health-related illnesses like obesity and diabetes. It drew the support of the majority of the Board of Supervisors, which voted to place it on the ballot, and a number of health organizations, such as the American Heart Association and the California Dental Association. The American Beverage Association, which represents the large soda companies, had raised $7.7...

Drink a 20-ounce soda daily, and you may be causing your cells to age as much as they would if you smoked, a study suggests. Researchers investigated DNA from 5,309 adults, focusing on telomeres, the caps on the ends of our cells' chromosomes, Time reports.

The progressive War on Soda may have failed in New York, despite the best efforts of the Deplorable Nanny State Mayor, but this is a multi-front battle which will clearly rage on for some time. As any good battle commander will tell you, when fighting an opponent with numerical superiority, it’s best to drag them into a skirmish on your home turf. In the effort to save people from their own ignorant, evil selves, the fight to make soda more expensive – and thereby modify public behavior through tax policy – has moved to Berkeley.

Libertarians were outraged by New York City Mayor Bloomberg’s “Big Gulp” ban (which a state court ultimately struck down). They slammed it as a “Nanny State” measure. But it was current Centers for Disease Control head Tom Frieden who was actually behind the ban.

Calling all ’90s kids: Surge is back. Coca-Cola unveiled the citrus-flavored soda in 1996 as an answer to Pepsi’s Mountain Dew. But SURGE couldn’t compete and was taken off shelves in 2001, to the dismay of what had become a cult-like following. Thousands of passionate fans have been fighting for its return for years, and today they tasted victory. This is just a test, said Coca Cola spokeswoman Sheree Robinson. “It has a big fan base, however, we’re not sure how that will translate into sales,” she said.

A new study by researchers at Stanford University is suggesting that making soda and other sugary drinks ineligible for purchase with SNAP funds could result in nearly a quarter million fewer diabetes cases in adults, and over 140,000 fewer obese children.

Healthy postmenopausal women who drink two or more diet drinks a day may be more likely to have a heart attack, stroke or other cardiovascular problems.A study involving almost 60,000 healthy postmenopausal women correlated diet drinks with increased risk of heart attack, stroke or a cardiovascular event. "Our findings are in line with and extend data from previous studies showing an association between diet drinks and metabolic syndrome," lead investigator Dr. Ankur Vyas of University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics said in a statement. "We were interested in this research because there was a relative lack of data about diet...

Women who drink the most diet sodas may also be more likely to develop heart disease and even to die, according to a new study published Saturday. Researchers found women who drank two or more diet drinks a day were 30 percent more likely to have a heart attack or other cardiovascular "event," and 50 percent more likely to die, than women who rarely touch such drinks. The findings, being presented at a meeting of the American College of Cardiology, don't suggest that the drinks themselves are killers. But women who toss back too many diet sodas may be trying...

Bloombergism is alive and well in California as another front is declared in the War on Soda. Apparently black people can’t be trusted to decide what they want to eat or drink on their own. They must be protected from their food choices by the nanny state. A bill introduced in the California senate would require warning labels for soda and give state bureaucrats the authority to inspect businesses to ensure compliance. Sen. Bill Monning (D.) introduced the “Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Safety Warning Act”

IT IS GREAT CVS is ending cigarette sales by October, and I know exactly what other dangerous products should go behind the counter when the wall of cancer sticks comes down: Coke, Pepsi, Gatorade, Red Bull, and all other sugary beverages. I say this because I take CVS’s new public health pronouncements seriously. In announcing the tobacco ban, CVS chief medical officer Troyen Brennan said the drugstore industry is positioning itself to offer more clinical services for chronic diseases. He wrote Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association that it is a “paradox” to sell cigarettes as pharmacies...

Michelle Obama has pushed Americans to eat healthier and to exercise more. Now she says we should “drink up” too. As in plain water. And as in more of it. The first lady, an exercise fanatic who loves French fries and whose biceps are envied by women everywhere, is getting behind a campaign being launched Thursday to encourage people to drink more plain old-fashioned water. Whether it comes from a faucet, an underground spring, a rambling river or a plastic bottle, the message is: “Drink up.” …

SAN JOSE -- A San Jose city committee Wednesday poured cold water on a proposal to eliminate soda pop, whole milk and other sugary or fattening beverages at city libraries, community centers and other public facilities. Councilman Ash Kalra's proposal hit a brick wall at the agenda-setting Rules and Open Government committee. Mayor Chuck Reed, who leads the committee, said "this definitely will not make my top 10 list" of potential ordinances to consider. Though he was willing at least to have the council as a whole decide whether to pursue it, none of the other committee members moved to...

SAN JOSE -- Want a Coke at the San Jose Library? A root beer for the kids at Happy Hollow Park and Zoo? Maybe some whole milk for the little one? Forget it! That stuff makes you fat. A San Jose councilman wants the city to stop providing sugary drinks and whole milk at city properties and events to promote healthier diets. "We cannot stop the obesity epidemic," City Councilman Ash Kalra said in his proposal. "But as the city of San Jose, we can do our part by being socially responsible and accountable for the products we make available...

They may take our lives, but they will never take…our FANTA! New York City’s plan to ban large sugary drinks from restaurants and other eateries was an illegal overreach of executive power, a state appeals court ruled on Tuesday, upholding a lower court decision in March that struck down the law.The law, which would have prohibited those businesses from selling sodas and other sugary beverages larger than 16 ounces, “violated the state principle of separation of powers,” the First Department of the state Supreme Court’s Appellate Division said in a unanimous decision. The appeals court echoed a court’s March decision,...

It seems that not even Beyonce or new, lower-calorie options can convince Americans to drink more soda. Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo Inc. and Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc. all sold less soda in the second quarter in North America, dashing hopes for the moment that splashy new marketing and different sweetener mixes could get drinkers back. Coca-Cola Co. said it sold 4 percent less soda in North America, while PepsiCo Inc. simply said its decline for the region was in the "mid-single digits." Dr Pepper sold 3 percent less of the fizzy drinks...