December 27, 2020 — Soda taxes are a favored tool for fighting obesity around the world. The World Health Association is totally on board with this taxing sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs). But there’s just one tiny problem. The promise that these taxes will improve health feels great, but fulfillment of that promise is elusive. In fact, evidence for an […]
April 26, 2020 — When reality is filled with pesky problems, people need an escape. With a new paper in Pediatric Obesity Rossana Torres‐Álvarez et al offer us such an escape. They describe a model for the effectiveness of beverage taxes to reduce childhood obesity in Mexico. Based on assumptions that these taxes will work, they built their model. […]
May 16, 2019 — Yep. We’re just about done here. Soda taxes are highly effective, and Philly has proved it. Classic economic price-demand curves work, especially in a city with a lot of poverty. If you tax soda and raise the price, sales go down. Philly obesity and diabetes rates will follow. A hot new publication in JAMA proves […]
March 27, 2019 — Victory is right around the corner. It’s not easy, but the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the American Heart Association (AHA) have finally figured out how to win the war on childhood obesity. They’ve published a joint position paper that calls for taxing sugar-sweetened beverages and curbing advertising for such products. Benjamin Winig of […]
June 27, 2018 — This week, the UK is taking even bolder action to reduce childhood obesity. A new obesity plan aims to cut England’s rate of childhood obesity in half by 2030. How, you ask? The answer involves marketing restrictions, restaurant calorie labeling, and a Daily Mile for primary students. All this comes on top of a sugary […]
October 18, 2017 — Leave our pumpkin spice alone, daggone it! Everyone is taking a shot at robbing us of the joy that pumpkin spice brings to fall. John Oliver is mocking us. Frank Bruni is telling us pumpkin spice will destroy us all. But the cruelest insult comes from MagnifyMoney, where Brittney Laryea tells us we’re paying a huge […]
August 7, 2017 — Add one more U.S. city to the rolling soda tax experiment. Last week Chicago began taxing sweetened beverages at a rate of a penny per ounce. A lawsuit by the Illinois retail merchants association delayed the the tax by a month. On July 28, a judge dismissed the suit and cleared the way for the […]
May 15, 2017 — Is fear a useful tool for promoting public health? Skimming the headlines you might think so. Hopes and fears for our health often take a ride on the beverages we drink and demonize. Fear the Bubbles In the UK, the press seems delighted to hype a rat study of carbonated water, saying that it will […]
December 16, 2016 — Mexico is something of a poster child for using taxes to drive down soda sales and fight obesity. A 10% tax on sugary drinks began nationwide there in 2014. After three years of the tax, soda consumption appears to be down, but obesity is still climbing. New results from Mexico’s 2016 National Health and Nutrition […]
November 10, 2016 — In Tuesday’s election, Americans in four cities – Boulder, CO, and San Francisco, Oakland, and Albany, CA – approved soda tax proposals for their cities. In addition, Chicago’s Cook County Board of Commissioners will vote on a soda tax today. These taxes will add a penny or two for each ounce of soda. Economics professor Roland Sturm […]
