Many hospitals are making steps to decrease sales of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) for both nutritional and environmental reasons. From a health standpoint, carbonated soft drinks are one of the biggest sources of calories in the American diet, providing about 7 percent of calories. Consumption of these beverages can lead to weight gain, obesity, and diabetes. As health care institutions, it is important that hospitals work to remove these beverages from their premises.

By sharing success stories and suggestions for implementation, the Center for Science in the Public Interest and Health Care Without Harm hope to encourage nutritionally and environmentally healthier policies in hospitals. The information in this report was gathered during the summer of 2013 through interviews with 11 hospitals in various stages of implementation of healthier policies.