Monday, July 12, 2010

New Report Shows Taxing Sodas Could Make a Big Difference in the Obesity Epidemic

In the late 1990's I saw a young 20-something woman who was trying to figure out what she could do to change her diet to lose some weight.

One of the things we discovered was that she was drinking 10 regular sodas a day.

If each soda was 150 calories, she was drinking 1,500 empty, sugar calories a day.

Obesity, Empty Calories and Sugary Beverages
There is evidence to show that the over-consumption of added sugars, largely from sodas and fruit drinks is contributing the the growing obesity rates in both adults and in children.

Legislatures and Health Care Professionals in many states have been calling for a public tax, a luxury tax, on caloric sweetened beverages in the hopes that such a tax will financially discourage consumers from drinking sugary beverages, and as a result help take a positive step in reducing the obesity epidemic in adults and children.

The hope is that faced with such a tax, consumers may reduce consumption of high-calorie, non-nutritive sweetened beverages and substitute nontaxed beverages, such as bottled water, juice, and milk.

A new study published in July 2010 and conducted by researchers in the Economic Research Service of the USDA on "Taxing Caloric Sweetened Beverages Potential Effects on Beverage Consumption, Calorie Intake, and Obesity" is providing evidence to show the impact of a tax-induced 20-percent price increase on caloric sweetened beverages on potentially reducing the alarming trends of the growing obesity epidemic.  

Study Findings

In this study, "Taxing Caloric Sweetened Beverages Potential Effects on Beverage Consumption, Calorie Intake, and Obesity" researchers estimated that a tax-induced 20-percent price increase on caloric sweetened beverages could:
  1. Cause an average reduction of 37 calories per day, or 3.8 pounds of body weight over a year, for adults 
  2. Cause an average reduction of 43 calories per day, or 4.5 pounds over a year, for children.
Researchers estimate that a 20-percent price increase from a tax on caloric sweetened beverages could reduce total calorie intake from beverages by 13 percent for adults and by 11 percent for children.

With these reductions in calorie consumption there could be an estimated decline in adult overweight and children prevalence of obesity.
  1. Decline in adult overweight prevalence (66.9 to 62.4 percent) 
  2. Decline in adult obesity prevalence (33.4 to 30.4 percent)
  3. Decline in child at-risk-for-overweight prevalence (32.3 to 27.0 percent) 
  4. Decline in children overweight prevalence (16.6 to 13.7 percent).
Since the obesity epidemic has been growing unchecked in the past 20 years, instituting a tax like the beverage tax that could potentially result in a decline in the epidemic would have an enormous impact on people's health and on health care.

Obviously the actual impacts would depend on many factors. Some of the include how the tax would be reflected in consumer prices and the competitive strategies of beverage manufacturers and food retailers.

Sources & Resources

Full Report: Travis A. Smith, Biing-Hwan Lin, and Jonq-Ying Lee. July 2010. Taxing Caloric Sweetened Beverages Potential Effects on Beverage Consumption, Calorie Intake, and Obesity. Economic Research Report No. (ERR-100) 33 pp, July 2010 Retrieved July 12 from http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/ERR100/ERR100.pdf

Publication Page: Travis A. Smith, Biing-Hwan Lin, and Jonq-Ying Lee. July 2010. Taxing Caloric Sweetened Beverages: Potential Effects on Beverage Consumption, Calorie Intake, and Obesity. Economic Research Report No. (ERR-100) 33 pp, July 2010 Retrieved July 12 from http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/ERR100/

Report Summary: Travis A. Smith, Biing Hwan Lin, and Jonq-Ying Lee. July 2010. Taxing Caloric Sweetened Beverages: Potential Effects on Beverage Consumption, Calorie Intake, and Obesity. Economic Research Report No. (ERR-100) 33 pp, July 2010 Retrieved July 12 from http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/ERR100/ERR100_ReportSummary.html

Image: R Young. Cooler Cans. Royalty Free Use.

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