Government leaders in the United States are yet again considering imposing a tax on sugary drinks. But whenever the idea is raised, advocates face loud opposition from those who want the freedom to have unlimited cheap supplies of Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
For the first time in the nation's history, Americans have been warned that their children could have a shorter life expectancy than their parents. More than two-thirds of Americans are overweight and more than one-third are obese. Perhaps many have heard these statistics so often that they fail to shock anymore - but it is clear that right now most Americans are making bad dietary choices.
And let's be frank, no one is talking about banning soda. Nutrition experts agree that soda, as well as sweet or fatty foods, can be included as part of a balanced diet. The key is moderation. No, most of the soda tax talk is about a tax of around a penny per ounce - which means that we'd pay around 16 cents more for a 500ml bottle. It seems like an outrageous jump to link a 16-cent price increase on a non-essential product with an attack on personal freedom.
Health experts claim that on top of cutting soda consumption and obesity rates, such a tax could generate $14.9bn in the first year alone, and the revenue could be used to help fund obesity prevention programs, as well as contribute to spiraling obesity-related health care costs. Perhaps such targeted use of the proceeds could help sway public opinion, considering that treating obesity-related diseases cost the tax payer nearly ten times this amount last year, a hefty $147bn, according to the Institute of Medicine.
We promised America's parents that we would change the beverage mix in schools, and our companies - along with their school partners - have delivered dramatic and significant results. With the national School Beverage Guidelines, we've removed full-calorie sodas from schools and replaced them with a range of lower-calorie, nutritious, smaller-portion choices. This has been no easy feat, but it is one we are proud of and we know will have meaningful and lasting results.
The beverage industry recently published the Alliance School Beverage Guidelines Final Progress Report, the final annual report on the implementation of the guidelines. The data measurement and statistics in the report were prepared by Keybridge Research LLC, a Washington, D.C.-based economic analysis and public policy research firm, under the direction of Dr. Robert Wescott. The three markers of progress are:
- We have dramatically cut calories available from beverages in schools. There has been a 88% decrease in total calories contained in all beverages shipped to schools.
- Full-calorie soft drinks have been removed from schools. There has been a 95% reduction in shipments of full-calorie soft drinks to schools.
- We have successfully changes the beverage landscape in schools across the country. The School Beverage Guidelines provide for a range of lower-calorie, nutritious, smaller-portion beverage options. As a result, the beverage mix in schools continues to shift to waters, portion-controlled sports drinks, diet drinks and 100 percent juices.
- The School Beverage Guidelines are a national standard that is in place and working. The beverage industry has worked with its school partners to accomplish a change in school nutrition that Washington is still just talking about.
The School Beverage Guidelines are common sense, supported by science and responsive to concerns about nutrition in schools.
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Obama told the publication Men's Health recently: "I actually think it's an idea that we should be exploring. There's no doubt that our kids drink way too much soda."
A nationwide soda tax could generate more than $10bn/year if 7 cents was levied on each 12-ounce can of Coke or Mountain Dew, according to CSPI's report.
In addition to making an important contribution towards paying for health coverage for all Americans, the tax would help to reduce the incidence of obesity and other costly chronic diseases, it adds.
CSPI executive director, Michael Jacobson agrees with the President: "President
Obama is exactly right when he say kids are drinking too much soda. Soda is dirt
cheap and promotes expensive and debilitating diseases, which in turn run up
health-care costs at all levels of government. Federal, state, and even local
governments would be wise to institute or increase taxes on a product that causes
so much medical and financial harm."
Americans spend about $147bn a year on medical expenditures related to obesity, of which half is paid with Medicare and Medicaid dollars.
The report, Taxing Sugared Beverages Would Help Trim State Budget Deficits, Consumers' Bulging Waistlines, and Health Care Costs, follows mounting scientific opinion in favor a tax. Seven prominent nutrition experts recently argued for a tax on soda in a report published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
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