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Chairman of the California Senate’s Select Committee on Obesity and Diabetes, Sen. Alex Padilla (the very same Senator who led a campaign requiring big restaurant chains to disclose calories in meals), announced on Thursday he planned to hold hearings in November on the link between soda consumption and obesity. His announcement coincides with the release of a study by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, that indicates that 62 percent of children aged 12 to 17, and 41 percent of children aged 2 to 11, drink at least one sugar-sweetened beverage a day. This is certainly a statistic that we, parents, need to contemplate. Overweight children with poor diets, in the past, generally became adults with a variety of weight-related diseases. But, experts say that overweight adolescents are starting to suffer problems that used to plague mainly middle-aged adults — early heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

“I don’t think that most parents truly appreciate the role soda pop has in causing weight gain,” Padilla said. “It is unfortunate that soda is actually cheaper than milk and even bottled water in many instances.”  Padilla said California needs to do more to educate the public about the health effects of drinking too much soda and to consider its options for reducing soda consumption among children.

Let’s get behind our legislators who have taken a powerful role in helping to tip the scales in a healthy direction for our children.

For more information, go to reuters.com

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