A recent article from Consumer Reports, titled “Can ‘Sin Taxes’ Solve America’s Obesity Problem?” reviews recent policy levying taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages and junk food, the impact of such taxes in municipalities within America and countries around the world, and quotes Dr. Barry Popkin on the research surrounding these taxes and their effects on intake.
While a long-term fix to the nation’s weight-gain epidemic will require much more than just taxation, an in-depth look at early experiments shows promising results—particularly when taxes are targeted at soda and other sugar-heavy drinks.
“Taxation of sugary beverages and junk food is where we have the most solid evidence of an effect,” says Barry Popkin, Ph.D., an economist and professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “Overall, it reduces consumption, and particularly for lower-income people, who have a higher incidence of untreated diseases, such as hypertension, diabetes, and other chronic diseases related to excessive consumption of these foods.”
Read more from this article here.