“It’s absurd to say that drinking a soda will cause these really extreme health conditions.”
The Financial Times reports:
Graphic marketing campaigns intended to frighten people about obesity are drawing fire from US beverage and restaurant groups that argue health officials have gone too far by linking their products to disease and amputation…
In one of the ads, which appear in subways, a boy with an amputated leg is pictured behind a diagram displaying the growing size of soda portions. Mr Farley said New York hospitals perform thousands of obesity-related amputations each year…
The American Beverage Association, which represents companies including PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, said the campaigns were “stomach-turning” and “misleading propaganda”.
“It’s absurd to say that drinking a soda will cause these really extreme health conditions,” said Chris Gindlesperger of the ABA. “Our companies are out there providing real help for consumers with more low- and no-calorie beverages”…
The only thing billboards, such as these, do is to stigmatize people and set them up for weight cycling. Rebecca Puhl, PhD, director of research at the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at Yale University in New Haven stated in a recent interview, “The real reality is that significant, sustainable weight loss is not achievable for most people.” She adds, “We know that the most that we can really expect people to lose and keep off over time from conventional weight loss programs is about 10% of body weight.”
“Of course, some people lose more than that, but the vast majority regains that weight within one to five years,” she says.
Studies show that dieting, even that considered “naturalistic”, among young people lead to weight cycling [Naturalistic weight reduction efforts predicted weight gain and onset of obesity in adolescent girls; http://ebn.bmj.com/content/3/3/88.full%5D
There is an evidence-based compassionate alternative to conventional dieting: Health At Every Size®. For more information on Health At Every Size, you can find a general explanation on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_at_Every_Size) or find in-depth research-based information in the book Health At Every Size – The Surprising Truth About Your Weight by Dr. Linda Bacon (http://www.lindabacon.org/HAESbook/).
This entire ‘progressive’ society has become a theater of the absurd.