CHAM Supports the Tax on Sugary Beverages

AHNY's First T.V. Commercial: "Preventable" from Something Digital on Vimeo.

The Children's Hospital at Montefiore is strongly supporting proposed legislation to tax sugar-sweetened beverages in order to decrease consumption and affect a damaging and costly obesity epidemic.

Numerous studies have found that increased intake of sugar sweetened beverages is associated with increased weight gain and obesity. Twenty-five percent of New York's children are obese and 60 percent of adults are either overweight or obese. Obesity is linked to higher rates of many preventable illnesses in children and adults such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, asthma and hypertension.

Since sugar-sweetened beverages are the food item most strongly linked with higher rates of obesity and diabetes, effort to reduce consumption will ultimately improve the health of New Yorkers and lower the state's and taxpayers' medical expenditures. Revenue will be raised to help New York avoid additional healthcare cuts and cuts to Department of Health programs.

A public service announcement from the Alliance for a Healthier New York featuring Philip O. Ozuah, MD, PhD, Physician-in-Chief, The Children's Hospital at Montefiore and Professor and University Chairman, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, is currently airing, urging support of the proposed tax to help combat obesity.