News Release

July 12, 2005

Media Contact: (202) 789-5200

Warning Labels on Soda Cans?
Cato analysts warn against latest health hysteria

WASHINGTON -- On Wednesday, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is expected to call for cigarette-style warning labels on the sides of soda cans. Cato policy analyst Radley Balko and Cato's director of health policy studies Michael Cannon are available for comment.

"First, the studies CSPI cites in calling for these warnings are far from universally accepted," says Balko. "A Harvard study released last year, for example, followed 14,000 school-age children and found that 'there was not a strong association between intake of snack foods and weight gain.' This included soda. Studies published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine and Obesity Research last year came to similar conclusions. Even anti-soda researcher David Ludwig was forced to conclude in one of his own studies, 'there is no clear evidence that consumption of sugar per se affects food intake in a unique manner or causes obesity.' For its part, CSPI was forced to retract key data from its own 1998 alarmist soda study 'Liquid Candy' after critics pointed to gaping flaws in its methodology.

"Second, the idea of singling out some foods for warning labels is preposterous. Any food eaten to excess will cause weight gain. Over the years, CSPI has attacked pound cake, grilled chicken alfredo, fondue, cheesecake, Chinese food, popcorn, hamburgers, corn chips, pizza, fried chicken, fat-free foods, low-carb foods, eggs, clams, beer, shellfish, milk, wine, and garlic bread, among others. Will all of these require warning labels, too?

"Finally, policymakers should ask themselves if this is really the kind of society we want. Do we really want every consumer decision nagged by warning labels and healthist propaganda? Do we want every measurable risk taxed and regulated? Do we want the equivalent of a government nanny lurking in each grocery aisle clicking her tongue at what's in our shopping cart?

"In 1994, CSPI President Michael Jacobson told the Washingtonian magazine, 'CSPI is proud of finding something wrong with practically everything.' He claimed to be joking. One wonders if he really was.

"This idea is absurd. Let consumers make their own decisions without this incessant prodding from alarmist public health activists."

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