Death by Soda

A new study suggests that boosting taxes on soft drinks would prevent 26,000 premature deaths a year.

January 16, 2012

WASHINGTON - If a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down, does a tax on sugar make medical sense? More to the point, is there any sort of proven link between sugar tax increases and wellness?

"A new study in the journal Health Affairs estimates that a penny-per-ounce tax on soft drinks and other sugary beverages could prevent about 240,000 cases of diabetes, 8,000 strokes, and 26,000 premature deaths per year."NPR attempted to find a shred of truth to this data, noting skepticism around the notion that a soda tax could prevent death.

Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, general internist at San Francisco General Hospital and an associate professor at the University of California, San Francisco, told NPR that when people consume "lots of" sugary drinks, that there is a risk of gaining weight. "And we know weight gain is linked to increased risk of heart disease and [Type-2] diabetes." She also suggests that soda consumption "seems to increase the risk of diabetes on its own," noting that, "This association has been observed consistently across a variety of studies."

Consumer behavior, however, according to the researchers, was reached by an assumption that if the price of soda increases, people will buy less.

"We assume that 40 percent of the calories saved by foregoing a sugary drink are replaced with other calories," Bibbins-Domingo told NPR, such as calories from milk, fruit juice or food. "So for every 100 calories in soda avoided, only 60 calories are actually lost in the diet,?? she added.

Len Epstein, chief of the division of behavioral medicine at the University of Buffalo, gave NPR his opinion of the Health Affairs report, of which he says "may overestimate" the effects of a soda tax. "The concern, as noted by the authors, is whether people would just substitute another empty calorie drink that was not taxed, or other types of junk foods that were not taxed, as substitutes for soda," he told NPR.

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