Taxing Soft Drinks – a Sticky, Slippery Slope

Would you support a tax on sugar-sweetened soft drinks?

There’s no question about it — too much sugar is a major factor in the epidemic of obesity and a host of chronic health problems, and poor nutrition is responsible for a large share of our escalating health care costs.

A recent article in The New England Journal of Medicine lays out the evidence linking sugar consumption, chronic illness, and the urgent need for solutions. One of the solutions currently being discussed is a tax added to sugary soft drinks which would be used to offset health care costs. Driving the prices of unhealthy drinks up would, in theory, drive consumption down, much like the taxes on tobacco has done.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group that supports the idea, says that “Americans spend roughly $100 billion a year on medical expenditures related to obesity, of which half is paid with Medicare and Medicaid dollars, and a tax of seven cents per soft drink can would raise $10 billion per year to help pay for an expansion of health care coverage and help lower obesity rates.”

Ameicans Agains Food Taxes, a group that opposes such a tax, says that “we can’t tax our way to healthier lifestyles, and we need to make that clear to our members of Congress. After all, we do have an obligation to our children — and to ourselves — to promote healthy lifestyles through balanced diet and exercise.”

Both advocacy groups make a good case.

Recently, the American Heart Association suggested that women limit sugar intake to 100 calories, or 6 teaspoons a day, and that men should limit their consumption to 150 calories, or 9 teaspoons.

To put those numbers in perspective, one 12-ounce can of cola has 130 calories, or 8 teaspoons. Americans are currently taking in an average of 22 teaspoons of sugar per day — obviously too much, but soft drinks are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to dietary horrors. It’s a sticky, slippery slope.

Personal responsibility has to kick in at some point. Would you support a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages? Please answer the poll below.

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Diane H F.

3:35PM PST on Nov 4, 2009

Sorry, folks, we made our choice and we have to live with it. We allowed government to impose unlimited taxes on tobacco "for our own good," but under 20% of US adults smoke, few will get sick as a result, and restrictions are so extreme that most of us have NO exposure to tobacco smoke. In short, it isn't a public health crisis. Obesity, however, is a public health crisis. Obesity, and obesity-related disease, is the result of our diets, and is our leading health care cost. The percentage of the population that is obese is alarming, and the problem is growing worse. The US simply can't afford it. The solution: impose tobacco-level taxes on high fat/high sugar foods to serve as an incentive to make healthier food choices.

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Steve G.

7:55PM PDT on Oct 14, 2009

anybody here who supports a tax on sugar is a commie/ Our constitution guarantees each of us freedom of choice. Taxing something to get someone to stop what you feel is useless is not freedom of choice. it is marxism. also,just for your info. these taxes will not, i repeat will not get spent on anything but pork projects(not health care ) and will benefit only government spending .hell, when have you ever seen government tax anything and spend it on what the tax was meant to be spent on? look at social security taxes. they were instituted to help people survive after their working years. yet, they (the government spends this money on every pork project ) while at the same time crying how social security is going broke.come on stop supporting government waste. 70 % of every dollar you earn already goes to taxes . we need another tax like we need another war.its no wonder we can't afford cloths , houses ,food , medical care, or anything else,when 70 cents goes to government and we get to keep only 30 cents of our hard earned money..

Janis T.

12:17PM PDT on Oct 7, 2009

Absolutely, tax soft drinks, they are muck. I never drank them even as a child. I do not like fizzy drinks of any kind. I would ban Coco Cola and Pepsi, disgusting rubbish both of them. They go all out to get whole communities hooked on these two brands alone, as they did in South America. It is truly appalling how these big companies behave, and even more appalling that they get away with it again and again.

Rod G.

1:18AM PDT on Sep 26, 2009

If We Are EVER Going to have REAL Freedom in This World We need Real Information To make Appropriate Choices; While taking Direct Actions to Ameliorate or Prevent Risk/Harm..
For You Are Not Truely Free;
Untill You Know The Consequences of Your Actions; And Chose Them With Total acceptance of ANY Possible Consequences; While Putting Prevention of Risk and Harm To Others at Top Priority;
still being Accountable before and After the Choice/Action; For The Predictable Costs/Self inflicted Harm or Social Consequences...

Any Behaviors That Leave out Parts of That Total; May Gain By Shifting Costs and Responsibility to Others But They Are NOT Truely FREE As They Carry on Thier Soul The Burden of All They have Cheated, Robbed, decieved, Conned, exploited, And passed the Costs of thier Choices/actions To...
That Doesn't Mean We Should Call it Bad Karma; and Let it GO>->+>->;)
We Should DEMAND AN ACCOUNTING NOW: And Keep The BOOKS ON a CLEAR and Open Viewed BALLNCE Sheet For ALL...
Then ALL Will Be Free...
and:
All WILL BE ACCOUNTABLE...

Oh Yeah;
I Agree Corn Sugar/Syrup is Evil/Toxic and Should Only Be used for Fuel Alcohol Production...
and GMO's Should only be Grown in OFF PLANET, SPACE TRAVEL/PLANETARY Colonization Experimental Greenhouses...
(There's an Appropriate Time and Place for Everything..;)

9:36PM PDT on Sep 25, 2009

True freedom, Means Making Informed Choices, and being Accountable for those Choices;

However Most USA Citizens Think Freedom is Doing Whatever "ME" Wants While Blaming Someone else for the Consequences;
& BIZ Seem To think Freedom is Getting Rich Selling Worthless, or Worse Damaging Products; While Paying "Scientists, Lobbiests, Advertisers, and Lawyers to Shift Accounatbility or Simply To DENY, DENY, & Lie, Lie LIE...

Industry Creating unsafe Products should Be Taxed/Fined, FIRST; Not Given Rediculous Subsidies; Taxing a Product Proportional to it's Damages is Not Punitive it is Just Holding The Buyer Accounatable BEFORE the Fact.
The Only Way We Can Have Fair Universal Healthcare; is if There is Some means of Tracking Risk/Benifit Ratio's connected to Behaviours & Consumption That Holds Each Person Accountable For Thier Informed Choices;
Likewise Industry should be Held Accountable Before The Product is Even introduced; To Show That they Made the Safest Healthiest Choices; & Fined if they do not While Assessing Apropriate taxes on Thier Polution and Risk Benifit Ratio of thier Product or Service...
YES Prices Would Go Up;
& Some Things Would Become Unafordable or Occasional Treats instead of Daily Habits.
But Those Costs Are Alredy There; They Just get Passed on to Someone Else Or Don't get Addressed at all and People Suffer & Die While NO ONE IS HELD ACCOUNTABLE...

If We Are EVER Going to have REAL Freedom in This World We need Re

rita b.

2:12PM PDT on Sep 25, 2009

If you must have carbonated drinks try this buy a bottle of unsweetened soda water then mix with your favorite unsweetened bottled or frozen juice. I did this for all my kids parties and everyone loved it.

I agree with the person who said we should quit substidizing unhealthy foods and ingredients. Only healthy foods should qualify for this sort of support from our government.

Sir Walk F.

12:46PM PDT on Sep 22, 2009

Taxes at the counter dont hurt the manufacturer AT ALL. They harm the consumer, often the poorest among us.

The US Corn (think Corn Syrup) and sugar industries receive BILLIONS in subsidies. Removed these subsidies to truly effect the industry, not the consumer.

Kaitlin C.

12:31PM PDT on Sep 22, 2009

When I was 14 I quit drinking soft drinks and I became a vegetarian as well. I lost 20 pounds and never gained it back. I weigh less now as a 19 year old than I did at 13. Want to know why? I don't drink soda and I don't eat meat, okay maybe I eat fish once a month. Think about it, if I, at 14, was able to lose 20 pounds quitting soda, then these people who drink soda every day and complain about their weight could lose most of that flab and never change their lifestyle. I whole-heartedly support a tax on these obesity causing sugar water drinks.

James D.

11:59AM PDT on Sep 22, 2009

Only if the new taxation covers All soft drinks. Those Diet drinks are very bad for you as well (brain feeling a little fuzzed lately, eyes on the blink, hello Aspertame). Since those who supposedly look out for us can't summon the gumption to ban even those Products that are nothing but bad for us (tobacco for example), then tax them out of existence. Although I would prefer to see our representatives take the path of reason and have the courage to just do the Right thing for a change.

Carl C.

11:03AM PDT on Sep 22, 2009

I have to admit I am addicted to soft drinks... I should drink tea for caffeine, bit the bubbles thrill my palate! In spite of that, I whole heartedly support taxing sugar and diet soft drinks. They are not necessary for life and are not a really good form of hydration. They are a guilty pleasure, and we should pay for them, especially if the tax goes to health care or health education.