Published December 29, 2015

Should Soda be Regulated Like Alcohol or Tobacco?

In an interview with the food website Lucky Peach, former New York Times recipe writer Mark Bittman said that he thinks there should be a legal minimum drinking age for soda. He argued that given soda’s proven health risks, it should be treated like alcohol or tobacco and be forbidden for people who are too young to make rational decisions.

Pittman acknowledges that his idea is far-fetched and unlikely to be put into place anytime soon, but he insists that soda should not be marketed to kids. While a legal drinking age for soda won’t happen until far into the future, if at all, many food chains in the U.S. are adapting to the growing consensus that too much soda is harmful for kids by offering alternative beverages for children or eliminating soda entirely from their kids’ menus.

It seems rather draconian to legally prevent children from drinking soda, and there’s no reason why it can’t be an occasional treat, but Bittman is right in saying that the amount of soda an average American child drinks at the moment is far too much. Hopefully the private sector can adjust the foods they market to children so that a health crisis can be averted without the government stepping in.

Read the full article here: Minimum Drinking Age For… Soda?