Ounces of Prevention — The Public Policy Case for Taxes on Sugared Beverages

Kelly Brownell, Director of the Yale Rudd Center, and Thomas Frieden, Health Commissioner of New York City Department of Health, composed a report highlighting that taxes on soda have significant potential for improving health.

This Perspective piece in the New England Journal of Medicine sheds light on a controversial public health measure to prevent diet-related diseases.

As a response to a nationwide obesity epidemic, 40 states already have small taxes on sugared beverages and snack foods, and in the past year, Maine and New York proposed large taxes on sugared beverages, provoking similar discussions in other states. Although a tax on sugared beverages is expected to have health benefits regardless of how the revenue is used, the popularity of such proposals increases greatly if revenues are used for programs to prevent childhood obesity, such as media campaigns, facilities and programs for physical activity, and healthier food in schools.