No doubt this junk study will be used in efforts to enact soda taxes during 2012.
From a University of California — San Francisco media release,
Every year, Americans drink 13.8 billion gallons of soda, fruit punch, sweet tea, sports drinks, and other sweetened beverages — a mass consumption of sugar that is fueling soaring obesity and diabetes rates in the United States.
Now a group of scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (SFGH) and Columbia University have analyzed the effect of a nationwide tax on these sugary drinks.
They estimate slapping a penny-per-ounce tax on sweetened beverages would prevent nearly 100,000 cases of heart disease, 8,000 strokes, and 26,000 deaths over the next decade.
Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, MD, PhD
“You would also prevent 240,000 cases of diabetes per year,” said Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, MD, PhD, an associate professor of medicine and of epidemiology and biostatistics at UCSF and acting director of the Center for Vulnerable Populations at the UCSF-affiliated SFGH…
As there is no scientific evidence that soda consumption causes or contributes to disease and death, this study is a meaningless exercise in statistical fantasy and data abuse.
I don’t see people say “OMG, my can of pop costs $.08 more, I better not buy it.”
And just like candy, cookies, and cakes, you can make your own.
Aha, the good old days. Where people actually had respect for truth and real science. If they knew people like Mann, his head would be on a spike. Would be that were true today.
26,000 deaths over a decade is just about the same number of casualties attributed to the higher mortality rates of low-weight motor vehicles that were foisted upon the public through CAFE standards.
This isn’t about saving anybody’s life. This is about *controlling* other people’s lives.
If you REALLY want to save a life, give blood.
Well, I can attest that not having sweet tea, soda’s with real sugar or any fruit juice or punch on 2011 prevented me from having a stroke or heart attack because I didn’t have one. Dadgum, today’s science is easy. Back in the dark ages we had to do things with real data, which sometimes were checked for accuracy and reproducibility.