'Racial Profiling' Causes High Soda Consumption In Northern Brooklyn, Officials Say

BUSHWICK, BROOKLYN — Northern Brooklyn residents drink more sugary drinks than anywhere else in the borough and city officials blame advertisers who target children in diverse neighborhoods.

“Marketing aggressively targets youth and communities of color in a strategy that amounts to racial profiling,” Health Commissioner Dr. Mary T. Bassett said in a statement announcing a new anti-obesity campaign.

“It is the responsibility of our entire community ... to ensure environments help New Yorkers make healthy choices.”

The Health Department study measured the consumption of sugary drinks — such as regular soda, energy drinks and fruit punch — between 2007 and 2015 by location, race and, for the first time, age, officials said.

Researchers found that Latino and black children under five-years-old drink sugary drinks at a rate four times higher than white children, according to the study.

And while sugary drink consumption dropped among white children, from 38 percent in 2013 to 29 percent in 2015, the numbers stayed the same among black, Latino and Asian/Pacific Islander youth, according to the report.

Neighborhoods with diverse communities, such as Bushwick, Bed-Stuy, and East New York, reported up to 37 percent of adults drinking sugary drinks, the highest percentage in the city, researchers found.

These numbers place the northern Brooklyn neighborhoods among the city’s top sugary drinks consumers, along with neighborhoods in northern Staten Island, The South Bronx and southwest Queens.

Citywide, the report found 1.5 million New Yorkers drink sugary drinks on a daily basis.

Officials linked the spike in sugary drink consumption to advertisers that target poorer neighborhoods.

“Sugary drinks are often disproportionately marketed to youth, in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color,” said Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Dr. Herminia Palacio.

“Beverage companies do not market to all communities equally,” added Charmaine Ruddock, Project Director for Bronx Health REACH at the Institute for Family Health. “Black and Hispanic communities like those in the south Bronx have been heavily targeted by them.”

City health officials hope to combat the trend by tightening nutrition regulations for child care centers, working with local vendors through the Shop Healthy NYC program, removing sugary drinks hospital vending machines and launching a new an ad campaign called “The Sour Side of Sweet.”

Photo courtesy of Marlith/Wikimedia Commons