In addition to ensuring that bottles, cans and cardboard don’t end up as trash or litter, recycling provides many benefits to the environment and our communities.  “Do Your Part with the Cart” is a great example of a simple program that has great potential for major impact, and we at Sip & Savor would like to congratulate the City of Knoxville for doing its part.

So, even if you aren’t living in Knoxville, we hope you’ll remember to recycle your beverage containers and other products.

Our industry has a long history of giving back – through charitable donations to causes both large and small, as well as volunteer opportunities in communities across the nation and around the globe.  Many of our member companies have information about these efforts on their websites; you also can find information on some of these efforts throughout our website.

So you have two days to think about if – or how – you may participate in the 2011 Worldwide Day of Giving.  We hope you consider taking some time to help make a difference in this world we all share.

More than 9,000 schools participated this year in the Alliance for a Healthier Generation’s Healthy Schools Program which helps prevent and reduce child obesity.  Participating schools are eligible for bronze, silver, gold and platinum awards from the Alliance.

We are proud to be doing our part as well – and proud of what we’ve accomplished in working with the Alliance.  Just a few months ago, America’s leading beverage companies announced that they delivered on a three-year commitment to remove full-calorie soft drinks from schools across the country, replacing them with lower-calorie, smaller-portion options like juices, teas and waters.  The result: Our national School Beverage Guidelines have slashed beverage calories in schools by 88 percent.

Those of us at Sip & Savor salute this year’s healthy achievement schools and the teachers, dietitians, nurses, administrators, students and parents who are making a difference.

Even though mainstream media may not often cover it, we at Sip & Savor feel that it is important to make sure we let you know about good news on the scientific front.  So here is the latest which, for the sake of transparency, did receive minimal media attention:

Very late last week a new study authored by scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health and published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found that “drinking coffee or sugar-sweetened carbonated soft drinks was not associated with colon cancer risk.”  In fact, the study looked at more than 730,000 people and concluded that even among those drinking 18 ounces of sugar-sweetened beverages per day there was no increased risk.

So make sure you spread the good news!  And if you want credible information on colon cancer, its prevention and treatment, check out this section of the National Cancer Institute’s Web site.

We think it’s great that the Wisconsin Beverage Association launched this Web site!  It captures the work our industry does in Wisconsin, highlights the industry successes and brings other important information together.  Check in with our colleagues at www.wibeverage.com.

Certainly, there will be issues from 2009 that will linger, but hopefully we can take a fresh look at them or move the discussion forward.

Our companies continue to be the most innovative in the food industry – and we expect some exciting new products and changes from them this year.

Our companies are still committed to doing their part to address tough societal challenges. We’re wrapping up a three-year effort to remove all full-calorie soft drinks from schools and replace them with low-calorie, smaller-portion products. But we’re not resting on our groundbreaking School Beverage Guidelines. This industry already is hard at work on more policy innovations designed to meet the concerns of our customers and contribute meaningful solutions in the public policy arena.

Our iconic companies and their brands are part of Americana. We’ll continue to share interesting history, facts and insight into the beverage industry. From the Super Bowl ads to some cool museums to hit, we’ll tap into the fun side of our world.

We know there will still be the critics, too. But, as we always do, we’ll counter the critics with the facts – and the rest of the story they never seem to want to tell.

So keep checking us out. Start your day with some interesting ideas or fun facts to sip and savor.

Please feel free to comment. We’ll publish them: good, bad or indifferent. Our only rule is to play nice – no personal attacks or profanity.

In a study published in the International Journal of Obesity, the researchers examined papers that cited two specific beverage studies. Of those papers, less than one-third were accurate in reporting the overall findings of those studies. However, more than two-thirds exaggerated the evidence — mischaracterizing the findings to suggest that reducing sugar-sweetened beverage consumption also would reduce weight or obesity.

According to Cope and Allison, white-hat bias is described as the “tendency to distort information about products regardless of the facts, when the distortions are perceived to serve good ends.”

Their study points out that, in the case of obesity research, results may be misrepresented by scientists operating with particular biases on topics related to weight, nutrition and the food industry, as well as biases toward products like sugar-sweetened beverages, and practices like breastfeeding.

For both the beverage and breastfeeding research, the resulting data were more likely to be published when it showed statistically significant outcomes. In fact, studies with outcomes that did not show negative consequences associated with sugar-sweetened beverage consumption were less likely to be published. The authors urged that the public health community “be vigilant to minimize and remove these biases.”

Dr. Maureen Storey, senior vice president for science policy at the American Beverage Association, found this study to be groundbreaking. As a former member of the research faculty at Georgetown University, Virginia Tech and the University of Maryland, Dr. Storey has served as an expert nutrition policy advisor to a Secretary of Health and Human Services and has published numerous peer-reviewed journal articles on a broad range of nutrition, science and public health issues.

Dr. Storey commented, “We all have personal likes and dislikes. As scientists interpreting data, however, we must try to leave our personal preferences, politics and points of view outside the scientific process. Dr. Allison’s research raises a ‘red flag’ for the public health community. Now, anyone interested in health research must scrutinize the original literature to see what data may have been omitted or what results may have been exaggerated.”

So when we come about a good news story, we’re going to share it. The story may not directly have anything to do with the beverage industry. But it has a lot to do with our industry’s attitude and culture. We’re about people – and bringing a little joy to their life.

And America certainly needs some good news nowadays; especially later today when the unemployment numbers come out. We know the good news is out there. It’s just sometimes hard to find with most media focused on the troubled economy, all-crime-all-the-time, and picking their fight of the day (enough with this Rush Limbaugh stuff, already. Don’t we have bigger problems to deal with?)

Today, we bring you a story from Wisconsin about a kind-hearted deer hunter who was there for a teary-eyed young woman who had bagged a trophy prize this past season. But her boyfriend wouldn’t believe her; thus, he wouldn’t come help her track and collect her 17-point buck. For those not familiar with deer hunting – 17 points is a big one.

Then along comes a kind-hearted young man, who was down on his luck all hunting week, to help her out. We won’t ruin the story, but when you get to the end – we’re taking the odds that the boyfriend now has “ex” in that name.

Enjoy. And please send Sip & Savor any stories you come across of people doing good by each other. Those random acts of kindness that make this country so special.