Posted on 06/21/2012 8:40:07 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
CHICAGO (Reuters) - America's largest physician organization recommended on Wednesday that taxes levied on sugar-sweetened sodas be used to fight the country's growing obesity crisis.
But the policy statement adopted by the American Medical Association's House of Delegates meeting in Chicago fell short of outright support for taxing sugar-sweetened beverages to control use of these products. Two recommendations to support such taxes put before the group's policy-making body in prior meetings failed to pass.
"While there is no silver bullet that will alone reverse the meteoric rise of obesity, there are many things we can do to fight this epidemic and improve the health of our nation," AMA board member Dr. Alexander Ding said in a statement.
The physician's group pointed to several studies showing that intake of sugar-sweetened beverages is strongly and consistency linked with increased body weight and a number of health conditions like type 2 diabetes.
According to the AMA, sugar-sweetened drinks make up nearly half of Americans' added sugar intake, and cutting consumption of these beverages is a simple way to reduce intake of sugar and empty calories.
The AMA said the policy recognizes that obesity is caused by many factors, but taxing drinks with added sweeteners is one way to help pay for education campaigns and other obesity-related programs.
Increasing taxes on sweetened beverages to a penny per ounce would reduce obesity rates by 5 percent and cut medical costs by $17 billion within a decade, the AMA Council on Science and Public Health said in its report.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Even the doctors are fat!
Only thing taxing would do is discourage consumption by making it more expensive.
Spending the taxes on "education" will do nothing.
Ridicule and shame may.
We have some control over whether we get type 2 diabetes, unlike many cancers.
We can make type 2 diabetes an expensive lifestyle choice.
A sugar tax would do nothing, but force wheat and wheat byproducts off the market one month out of the year and watch people lose weight.
yay, i’m sure those soda taxes would go right for medical costs of fat people.
Sure.
politicians just make it hard as hell for lower income people to even exists with all their BS taxes to punish behavior.
What does tax have to do with personal responsibility?
It’s like adding a tax to improve good manners in public; something that “Holder’s People” could dramatically improve upon.
New taxes “allocated for a specifice cause”......
ya...the money goes to the general fund to buy votes and $5 poster that says “eat right”....
“the money should go to....”
Has that EVER happened?
Anywhere? on ANY subject?
uhh..NO!
What about lattes?
What about frapachinos?
What about ice cream?
What about caviar?
Kinda like how tobacco taxes were supposed to fight smoking? Until they turned into such a cash cow, they're now used to pay for everything under the sun. (Except smoking cessation programs. We certainly can't have those smokers quit on us, now can we? Who'd pay for those wonderful programs? Oops, you mean they're dying? Well, we'd better find something else to tax!)
“Increasing taxes on sweetened beverages to a penny per ounce would reduce obesity rates by 5 percent”
Huh....taxing something discourages it.
Who knew?
Stalin cured obesity in the Ukraine...
I know a woman in her late 50’s who drinks Coca Cola all day long...from morning till night. She has done this for decades. She’s huge!
Years ago I suggested she switch to diet soda, but she said she doesn’t like the taste. When she tells me she had her annual doctor’s check up, she says the doctor always gives her a clean bill of health.
I wonder.
I don’t understand this soda issue. We never had it in our home and I was told never to drink it. When I did try it once, it tasted awful and the carbonation was unpleasant in my mouth. The smell of coke/pepsi is repugnant to me. So I ask, why do people give their children soda?
As I stated earlier on the original Nanny Bloomberg decision, this was all about new taxes, not about health issues.
Once again if a person buys the larger soda 32 oz for $1.60 with a 8% sales tax that equals 13 cents in tax revenue. Now that person has to buy 2-16 oz for $1.30 each at 8% tax that equals 21 cents. The gubmint just generated 8 cents more “revenue” on the same volume of product sold...
“obesity crisis”
Crisis? Ya...whatever, pinheads.
Oh, soda tax, huh?
In the vast majority of cases, eye-popping tobacco judgements never went to people “tricked” into smoking. In California’s case most of that loot went to repairing sidewalks, i.e. union folks who set up cones and do very little.
This is just a way of raising tax without, “raising tax”.
Gov’t want to have the cake and eat it, too.
Don’t want to suffer the ill-effects of HFCS? Then simply don’t drink it.
If they tax all drinks with added sugar many will be surprised to find some of their “healthy” drinks taxed- not just soda. Hubby and I have a hard time finding things to drink when we are traveling that don’t have sugar, we are happy to find a drink with a smaller amount than soda. We can’t stand artificial sweeteners so the diet drinks don’t appeal to us. As far as sugar free we drink a lot of water but always looking for something else. We both like tea but at most convenience stores and restaurants the regular iced tea is gross.
The AMA is a commie organization. I know a lot of physicians and. Of one of them belongs to th AMA.
Hey, why not. I drink soda that much, so it doesn’t bother me in the least, and besides they tax my beer and tobacco out the yazoo and those taxes are mostly pushed by those who don’t indulge.
I don’t have a problem with this at all...........do I really need a sarcasm tag?
NANNY STATE PING!!!!!!!!!!!!
Doctors lobbying for more money for themselves. They aren’t against taxes, just suggesting that they get the money.
No surprise here.
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