Will a "Sweet Tax" on Sugary Beverages Help With Health? What do You Think?
Wednesday July 8, 2009
The spin on this tax, according to Op-Ed Columnist Nicholas D. Kristoff, is that New Yorkers will benefit from this tax, by ultimately limiting their purchase of sodas and other sweetened drinks and choosing non-taxed healthy options like water and unsweetened drinks instead.
It's true that sugary sodas and drinks are empty calories and can lead to obesity. If you are a regular soda drinker, giving up these drinks can help you lose 20 pounds in a year, according to studies. And dropping 5 to 7 percent of your body weight can lessen or even prevent type 2 diabetes.
So, is NY state helping New Yorkers to get healthy? Should soft drinks be taxed? Take this poll and find out how others feel. Or, post a comment below.
Comments
Debra — I very much agree with about our nation’s serious health problems and that dropping one’s body weight can lower diabetes risk. My concern is that taxing soda/sweetened beverages misses the point in terms of putting a dent in our nation’s obesity troubles.
As a nutrition educator at UC Davis and consultant to food and beverage companies, I don’t believe that taxing specific foods, beverages, and/or ingredients will not solve the obesity epidemic or prevent any other health condition. Obesity and most health issues do not have a single cause – it’s a combination of several complex factors. You know as a diabetes expert that multiple factors come into play in determining one’s diabetes risk. Thus no one beverage or food is to blame for obesity or diabetes and taxing soda is grossly off the mark as a means to fund our health care system as well as making a measurable “dent” in our country’s obesity woes. Here are a few statistics for clarification:
• Obesity rates in Arkansas and West Virginia are among the nation’s highest, yet these are the only two states that currently have a tax on soft drinks.
• A federal tax on sugary beverages would raise perhaps $50 billion over 10 years, or about 3% of the $1.5 trillion needed to pay for health care reform. By comparison, limiting the tax exemption for medical insurance benefits could bring in $500 billion, and making Medicare and Medicaid more efficient could save as much as $600 billion.
• Without a tax soft drink sales fell in 2008 for the fourth straight year, as increasing numbers of health-conscious consumers switched to bottled water.
Liz Applegate, Ph.D.
University of California, Davis
What about High Fructose Corn Syrup? Why doesn’t the FDA ban it from use in the USA altogether? Remember when soda was made with real sugar… you couldn’t drink more than 12 ounces before feeling satisfied. I personally only drink a can or two a week and only the diet kind made with Splenda. I think the introduction of HFCS into our food supply has aided in the EPIDEMIC of obesity in America (and beyond).
I think a taxation program applied to foods and drinks that are cheap but nutritionally deadly, has its potential. The proposed tax, taken alone, however, will disproportionately impact low-income people–you need some other device to boost incomes, plus powerful propaganda campaigns to drive the message home. This makes more sense as an idea to stimulate debate than as actual legislation.
You know that more unsavory people will start supplying sugary drinks at inflated prices. Think Prohibition. Plus the prices of bottled water and non-sugar drinks will probably become excessively inflated because of demand. Will he be taxing sugar itself? If not, people will only make their own sweetened drinks. What about candy? Gum? bakery desserts? All of these contribute as well to the growing health and obesity problem.
Everything comes down to the dollar. The sugar industry has a lot of money behind it. These companies don’t care about humans just like drug companies and a percentage of doctors and health care institutions. It comes down to money. If not we would have had a cure for cancer and diabetes and other diseases People have to watch out for themselves and pick right choices from reading and questioning.