Kevin W. Keane, the president and CEO of the American Beverage Association, told Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow that the soft-drink industry has worked with parents, health experts, and market forces to reduce its role in America’s obesity crisis. That claim isn’t coming from street-level spin — Keane has been leading the trade group since 2023 and runs the association that represents Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Keurig Dr Pepper and many family-owned bottlers. The industry’s playbook, according to its own leadership, has been choice and innovation rather than government mandates.
For years the beverage industry has touted concrete, market-driven steps: smaller portion sizes like mini cans, voluntary changes in school beverage offerings, and the front-of-package calorie disclosures consumers now see on shelves. Those aren’t publicity stunts; ABA materials point to measurable cuts in beverage calories and coordinated efforts with organizations like the Alliance for a Healthier Generation to remove full-calorie sodas from schools and cap calories on other options. Conservatives who believe in empowerment over paternalism should take note — the private sector listened and adapted where bureaucrats often failed.
The industry has also launched a transparency initiative aimed at giving Americans straightforward facts about ingredients, a market-oriented alternative to heavy-handed federal rulemaking. ABA’s Good To Know effort is designed to arm consumers with the information they need to make choices for their families without adding another layer of federal interference. That’s the conservative solution in practice: educate, innovate, and preserve personal responsibility rather than substituting government for parental authority.
On questions that have worried parents — like artificial sweeteners — the association has defended the science-backed safety conclusions from global regulators, pointing to reviews from agencies such as the World Health Organization and the FDA. The industry’s position is simple: if regulatory science supports these ingredients, consumers should be able to use lower-calorie options to manage their diets. Hardworking Americans don’t need moralizing elites telling them what to buy; they need reliable facts and real choices.
Let’s be blunt: the obesity crisis will not be solved by soda bans, punitive taxes, or bureaucratic virtue-signaling. ABA materials note that beverage calories make up a small fraction of overall caloric intake and that full-calorie soft-drink consumption has fallen while obesity has risen, underscoring the complexity of the problem and the limits of one-size-fits-all regulatory fixes. Conservatives should push for policies that encourage innovation — more zero-sugar options, sensible portion variety, and community-based education — rather than costly, liberty-crushing mandates.
Policymakers who want real results should back market solutions and keep government out of the grocery aisle, not reward nanny-state bans that punish ordinary Americans and small businesses. The beverage industry’s voluntary efforts to reduce calories, expand choices, and increase transparency show what can be achieved when private enterprise is free to respond to consumer demand instead of waiting for permission from tenured regulators. Protect choice, champion innovation, and trust parents — that’s how we fix problems, not by surrendering our freedom to well-intentioned but dangerous government overreach.
