{"id":33895,"date":"2010-10-28T12:43:06","date_gmt":"2010-10-28T17:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/?p=33895"},"modified":"2010-10-28T12:43:46","modified_gmt":"2010-10-28T17:43:46","slug":"insider-e-mails-betray-anti-soda-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/10\/insider-e-mails-betray-anti-soda-controversy\/","title":{"rendered":"Insider E-Mails Betray Anti-Soda Controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"Anti-Soda ad\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/10\/insider-e-mails-betray-anti-soda-controversy\/\" target=\"_self\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-33896\" title=\"pouring-on-the-pounds\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/pouring-on-the-pounds.jpg\" alt=\"Soda becomes Fat\" width=\"287\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>There&#8217;s controversy lurking behind the &#8220;Don&#8217;t Drink Yourself Fat&#8221; campaign launched by the New York City Health Department. Experts are disputing the claim that &#8220;Drinking one can of <a title=\"soda addiction \" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/10\/soda-addiction-no-more\/\" target=\"_self\">soda<\/a> per day can make you 10 pounds fatter a year.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>E-mails obtained by <em><a title=\"E-Mail Reveals Dispute Over City\u2019s Antisoda Ad\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/10\/29\/nyregion\/29fat.html?_r=1&amp;src=twt&amp;twt=nytimes\" target=\"_blank\">The New York Times<\/a><\/em> show that even the chief nutritionist Cathy Nonas had her doubts about the commercial, which ran on local news stations and as a viral video on the web. &#8220;CAUTION,&#8221; she wrote on August 20, 2026. \u201cAs we get into this exacting science, the idea of a sugary drink becoming fat is absurd.\u201d City health commissioner Dr. Thomas A. Farley permitted the ads because he felt that &#8220;what people fear is getting fat,&#8221; as opposed to a more nuanced discussion of nutritional value.<\/p>\n<p>Print versions of the ad show a can of soda turning into fat as it&#8217;s poured into a glass (shown above). A newer advertisement shows a <a title=\"Man Eating the Amount of Sugar in Soda\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/videos\/man-eating-the-amount-of-sugar-in-a-soda\/\" target=\"_self\">man eating the amount of sugar in a soda<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->\u201cBasic premise doesn\u2019t work,\u201d Dr. Michael Rosenbaum, a professor of pediatrics and clinical medicine at Columbia, said in an e-mail to Ms. Nonas on Aug. 18, 2026. The debate reveals the difficulty of balancing science with a marketing message. Although few would argue that soda is nutritious, it&#8217;s fairly difficult to predict how sugar will be converted into calories and then into fat. Experts have pointed out that these conversions vary from person to person, depending on age, genes, exercise and gender.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe know gaining and losing weight isn\u2019t that cut and dry,&#8221; said Sabira Taher, the campaign manager. &#8220;Some people can drink and eat whatever they want and still maintain their weight without doing an incredible amount of exercise to burn off the extra calories.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In the effort to fight obesity, the Mayor Bloomberg lobbied to have a <a title=\"New York Soda Tax\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/05\/new-york-soda-tax-plan-gives-diet-soda-a-pass\/\" target=\"_self\">soda tax<\/a> implemented in the city.<br \/>\n<object classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" width=\"480\" height=\"291\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/-F4t8zL6F0c?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0\" \/><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><embed type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"480\" height=\"291\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/-F4t8zL6F0c?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n<p><strong>Also Read:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Man Eating the Amount of Sugar in a Soda\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/videos\/man-eating-the-amount-of-sugar-in-a-soda\/\" target=\"_self\">Man Eating the Amount of Sugar in a Soda<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"New York Soda Tax Plan Gives Diet Soda a Pass\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/05\/new-york-soda-tax-plan-gives-diet-soda-a-pass\/\" target=\"_self\">New York Soda Tax Plan Gives Diet Soda a Pass<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Can a Soda Tax Prevent Obesity?\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/02\/can-a-soda-tax-prevent-obesity\/\" target=\"_self\">Can a Soda Tax Prevent Obesity?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There&#8217;s controversy lurking behind the &#8220;Don&#8217;t Drink Yourself Fat&#8221; campaign launched by the New York City Health Department. Experts are disputing the claim that &#8220;Drinking one can of soda per day can make you 10 pounds fatter a year.&#8221; E-mails &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/10\/insider-e-mails-betray-anti-soda-controversy\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3695],"tags":[2551,168,2084,92,4244],"class_list":["post-33895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diet-and-nutrition","tag-beverages","tag-fat","tag-new-york-city","tag-obesity","tag-soda"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33895"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33899,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33895\/revisions\/33899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}