This would be funny if they weren't serious: Tax soda, pizza to cut obesity, researchers say

From Reuters today

Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. researchers estimate that an 18 percent tax on pizza and soda can push down U.S. adults' calorie intake enough to lower their average weight by 5 pounds (2 kg) per year.

The researchers, writing in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine on Monday, suggested taxing could be used as a weapon in the fight against obesity, which costs the United States an estimated $147 billion a year in health costs.

"While such policies will not solve the obesity epidemic in its entirety and may face considerable opposition from food manufacturers and sellers, they could prove an important strategy to address overconsumption, help reduce energy intake and potentially aid in weight loss and reduced rates of diabetes among U.S. adults," wrote the team led by Kiyah Duffey of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

With two-thirds of Americans either overweight or obese, policymakers are increasingly looking at taxing as a way to address obesity on a population level.

California and Philadelphia have introduced legislation to tax soft drinks to try to limit consumption."
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Not to be left out, Mississippi's food police continue working on this too.

JACKSON -- Legislation that would add a 24-cent tax on 12-ounce, sugar-laden soft drinks appeared dead Wednesday (February 17th), but not before the measure received a lengthy hearing about how strongly sugar contributes to Mississippi's distinction as the nation's most obese state.

"This is just the first batter in the first inning," the bill's sponsor, Rep. John Mayo, D-Clarksdale, said after a nearly two-hour hearing in the House Ways and Means Committee.

Mayo said he expected strong opposition to his Sweetened Beverages and Syrups Tax Law legislation from lobbyists for the state's soft drink association and businesses that would have to raise prices on the products and cut into their profits.

The legislation would require soft drink distributors and retailers to pay a tax of $2.56 a gallon, or two cents an ounce, for sweetened soft drinks.

The tax would amount to 24 cents per 12-ounce Coke, Pepsi or other soft drink sweetened with sugar.

Drinks that include artificial sweeteners would be exempt.

Business owners would have to pass the price increase on to consumers, and risk losing money, or absorb the increased cost themselves.

"I understand the position of private business," Mayo said. "But with a problem of this scope -- obesity -- private business will respond as a result of either implemented government policy or threatened government policy.

"It took us eight years to get movement on the tobacco tax, and if it takes another eight years on this, we'll get movement." See the rest of the article in The Commercial Appeal

Why don't we we just tax the fat people?