BACKGROUND: Sugary drinks are the largest single source of added sweeteners in the U.S. diet and a critical risk factor for many chronic diseases. That is why decreasing consumption of sugary drinks has been a priority for Shape Up SF since 2008, when we kicked off our first Soda Free Summer. Since then, we’ve been helping to develop and implement campaigns designed to raise awareness about the negative impacts of sugary drinks on health. In 2009, we led the development of Drink Water Said the Otter books. In 2014, we collaborated with San Francisco Bay Area Counties to implement the Choose Healthy Drinks campaign. Rethink Your Drink is the banner name we use for all of Shape Up SF’s campaigns related to sugar-sweetened drinks: Soda Free Summer (SFS), “Drink Water!” Said the Otter (DWSTO), the Choose Healthy Drinks campaign, and now the Open Truth campaign. For the Open Truth campaign, one of the organizations Shape Up SF partnered with was The Bigger Picture. Through this partnership, four powerful videos by talented young poets about sugary drinks, their negative health impacts, and beverage industry tactics that target youth and communities of color were developed. Watch them now: Lost in Translation, A Taste of Home, Targets, and Perfect Soldiers.

Shape Up SF Progress

Click on the timeline to see some of our key successes.

Here are more resources to reduce consumption of sugary drinks in English, Spanish, and Chinese.

If you’d like to collaborate with us, let us know.