New Government Report: Taxing Caloric Sweetened Beverages: Potential Effects on Beverage Consumption, Calorie Intake, and Obesity (ISBN: 9781437935931)

Taxing Caloric Sweetened Beverages: Potential Effects on Beverage Consumption, Calorie Intake, and Obesity (ISBN: 9781437935931)
By Travis A. Smith, Biing-Hwan Lin, Jonq-Ying Lee
(Paperback, 33 pages, 2010, $25.00)

Despite budget deficits and calls by health advocates, soda taxes have failed to pass recently in New York, Philadelphia, Vermont, Mississippi, Kansas and Alaska, the New York Times reports.

The link between high U.S. obesity rates and the over-consumption of added sugars, largely from sodas and fruit drinks, has prompted calls for a tax on caloric sweetened beverages (CSB). Faced with a tax, consumers may reduce consumption of these CSB and substitute non-taxed beverages, such as bottled water, juice, and milk.

A tax-induced 20% price increase on CSB could cause an average reduction of 3.8 pounds of body weight over a year, for adults and an average of 4.5 pounds over a year, for children.

Given these reductions in calorie consumption, results show an estimated decline in adult overweight prevalence and obesity prevalence, as well as the child at-risk-for-overweight prevalence and the overweight prevalence. Charts and tables.

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