Dear Friends,

We are excited to announce on February 19, Sen. Mattie Hunter and Rep. Robyn Gabel reintroduced the Healthy Eating Active + Living (HEAL) Act to help provide tools and resources for Illinois families to live healthier lives. Thank you for your past support of this issue! We will need your help again this legislative session to gain legislator support for the issue and work to improve the health of Illinoisans!

Please ask your legislators to co-sponsor the HEAL Act.

The HEAL Act (SB 1584 and HB 2667) invests in expanded opportunities for healthy eating and physical activity such as more nutrition and physical education in schools, more affordable and accessible foods at farmers markets, and more bike lanes and sidewalks for residents to be active.  The funding for these investments come from an expected $600 million or more a year from a small tax on sugary drinks. Sugary drinks are the number one source of added sugar in the American diet and have unique and proven health hazards. The HEAL Act places a penny-per-ounce excise tax on high-sugar beverages (those with more than 5 grams of sugar per 12 ounces) to generate revenues to make health investments across the state.

As you can imagine, this won't be the easiest legislation to pass, which is why we need your help today! Take action and ask you legislators to co-sponsor this important bill aimed to combat heart disease, diabetes and obesity in Illinois.

Once you have taken action, please pass this email on to your friends, family and social networks and ask them to lend their voice to the fight!

Thank you for your continued support of building healthier lives in Illinois!

Janna Simon, MPH
Illinois Alliance to Prevent Obesity