Anti-tax: All calories count

One proposed purpose of the Soda Tax is to help Americans become healthier and fight the growing obesity problem in our country. However, Kevin W. Keane, senior vice president for public affairs of the American Beverage Association, says it is wrongheaded to single out soda “when it comes to losing weight, all calories count, regardless of the food source.” If we are targeting soda as the source of extra fat why not go straight to the super sweet stuff, candy. But then again meat can also be healthy depending on how much is eaten. Everything can cause weight gain if eaten out of proportion. What is lacking in our society is not more restrictions but self-control. Government restriction should not be extended to what we can and can’t eat. “I have never seen it work where a government tells people what to eat and what to drink,” Muhtar Kent Coca-Cola CEO told the Rotary Club of Atlanta last month. “If it worked, the Soviet Union would still be around.”

The University of Illinois also did a study of the relationship between fat taxes like the soda tax and food consumption, obesity and weight gain. According to a press release from the University of Illinois "Previous economic studies suggest that food prices do change consumption. However, the researchers want to determine if, for example, consumers will seek out another high-sugar drink such as Kool-Aid if, say, soda is too expensive. If they do, then a tax on soda may reduce soda consumption but will not necessarily reduce weight, improve diet quality, or reduce overall sugar intake."

Written by Bekah