Skip to Content

Tidbits from the California Healthy Beverage Summit

 

Organizations across the country came together in Los Angeles last week for the first-ever California Healthy Beverage Summit, which looked at strategies and solutions for reducing the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages.

Held at the University of Southern California, the day-long event studied the state of sugary drink policies in California and beyond, including the latest research about the health risks associated with sugary beverages, efforts to promote healthier alternatives such as water, strategies to counter aggressive marketing of sugary drinks and the current state of play for policy efforts, including taxation.

Highlights from the event include:

  • Professional snowboarder Bryan Fox talked about his organization Drink Water, which encourages professional athletes to not take endorsement deals from energy drinks and other unhealthy products.
  • The nonprofit organization Kick the Can Telluride discussed its effort to pass a soda tax in the Colorado city. The penny-per-ounce tax on sugary drinks will be voted on in November.
  • Much talk centered on the effort to reduce sugary drink consumption in California. While two local taxes failed to pass last year, a proposed beverage tax at the state level is slated to be revisited in January.