BodiMojo Teen Health Blog – Teenage Nutrition, Fitness, Stress, Relationships & More

There’s a new salvo in the war against obesity. Over the past few months, public health experts and some government officials have called for a tax on soda and other sugar-sweetened drinks.Such a tax, they argue, would reduce soda consumption, lower health costs, and help fund government-run health programs.

Why soda? Kelly Brownell, the lead author of a New England Journal of Medicine article on the topic, told the New York Times last May that “the science is most robust and most convincing on the link between soft drinks and negative health outcomes.”

Taxing soda would be sort of like taxing cigarettes. The government taxes something that’s bad for you, then uses the money to raise awareness of its dangers and pay for the associated health costs. It’s estimated that a soda tax could raise about $15 billion a year.

Opponents — mostly spokesmen for the beverage industry, but also just some regular folks — argue that taxing soda would be adding another tax to an already overtaxed population (particularly lower-income people) — and that a government attempt to reduce soda consumption is way too “Big-Brother-ish.” There are some slick ads out there aimed at fighting the idea of a soda tax.

Plus, some say, taxing soda doesn’t make sense in the way that taxing cigarettes does. David Katz, director of medical studies in public health at Yale University, was quoted in an ABC news report in September as saying that “steep taxes on foods are problematic, because even ‘bad’ food is not tobacco.”

Others think taxing soda simply wouldn’t work to reduce obesity. Martin Binks, director of behavioral health and research director of the Duke Diet and Fitness Center, also quoted in the September ABC News report, said that taxing soda is way too simplistic to solve the obesity problem. Without a strong public education program about healthier options — and without taking into account that there are all kinds of other junk foods out there to tempt junk-food-loving Americans — just taxing soda will likely not do the trick.

I’m with Binks. Absolutely, it’s important to urge people to drink less soda and other sugary drinks — it’s a sure-fire and simple way to cut calories. Maybe a soda tax would help, maybe not. But we at BodiMojo think the best way to reduce obesity is to keep talking about it — loudly, if we have to. To keep educating people as to why obesity happens and how to tackle it, and to help support people in their efforts to eat a healthier diet overall.

Taxing soda is a forward-thinking idea. But the truth is, we need LOTS of forward-thinking ideas to combat our tendency to go for food and drink that is just plain bad for us.