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SALT LAKE CITY — New York City's proposed ban on large sugary drinks is no more, to the glee of soda addicts everywhere. The ban was controversial and never went into effect, but if it had, one study suggests it may have actually increased consumption — depending on how soda was marketed.
Researchers at UC-San Diego wanted to test how the ban would affect how much people drink, so they decided to offer test subjects three different menus with three different ways of ordering soda: One offered drinks in 16, 24, and 32 oz sizes; another offered drinks in 16 oz, a bundle of two 12 oz, and a bundle of two 16 oz sizes; a third offered only 16 oz drinks.
What they found was that the bundled sizes, two 16 oz or two 12 oz drinks, were chosen more often than any other beverage size, even a single serving that contained the exact same amount of soda as the two bundled servings.
That's an important finding because the now-defunct New York ban would have allowed the bundling of drinks.
"Our research suggests that businesses have a strong incentive to offer bundles of soda when drink size is limited," the study said. "Restricting larger-sized drinks may have the unintended consequence of increasing soda consumption rather than decreasing it."
Related:
Study: Diet soda, beverages, linked to depression
Diet beverages may cut calories, but they could increase the risk of depression, new research suggests. A study released by the American Academy of Neurology this month found that those who regularly drink aspartame-sweetened diet beverages are 31 percent more likely to have depression than those who do not drink sweetened beverages.It is important to note, however, that the study also found that selling only the small sized drinks — without allowing bundling — led to significantly less consumption. That suggests a stricter ban, one that wouldn't allow bundling of drinks, may have reduced consumption significantly.
Nevertheless, legislating food is always tricky business and some nutritionists have expressed concern about any kind of ban.
"I discourage anyone from drinking 32 ounces of soda, but the issue is: what can we legislate?" Keith Ayoob, dietician for Children's Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center told NBC. "(New York Mayor) Bloomberg's intention was good, but people still want to have choices and the freedom to make wrong ones. It's a sad commentary on our society that they want to legislate what people eat."
