Experts Warn Of Looming Social, Economic Catastrophe Of Obesity-Related Deaths
Researchers say decades worth of gains in medical technology are no match for the nation's obesity epidemic. No life-prolonging improvements in medical care or public health measures are likely to be able to compensate for the life-shortening effects of obesity, they say.
The Los Angeles Times:
Will Obesity Reverse The Life-Span Gains Made Over Decades Of Health Triumphs?
New statistics on death rates in the United States appear to confirm a grim prediction — that obesity is reversing decades of steady expansion in Americans' life spans, according to a Harvard University researcher calling for more and better research and the urgent adoption of policies that could improve Americans' food and drink choices. (Healy, 4/4)
Meanwhile, San Francisco and Oakland make new efforts to get a soda tax back on the ballot —
KQED:
San Francisco, Oakland Working To Put Soda Tax Before Voters
Berkeley was the trend setter in 2014 when voters there approved the first a soda tax in the U.S. with a resounding 75 percent of the vote. That same year San Francisco voters rejected a soda tax. But supporters were not deterred. Now, new efforts have resumed in San Francisco and in Oakland to move through a tax with a goal of fighting the obesity and diabetes epidemic. Both cities seem to be applying lessons from the Berkeley playbook to see the taxes through. (Aliferis, 4/4)