Raise Soda Prices and Obesity Will Drop

Noisebot

I'm only 29 and in my lifetime I've seen cans of soda in vending machines go from 50 cents to now 20 ounce bottles as high as 2 bucks. Why is that? It's the same crap it's always been.

I wouldn't even pay 2 dollars for Crystal Pepsi. I don't care if, "Right now. Hey! It's your tomorrow. Right now! Come on, it's everything."

And that's the point of a new study, researchers say if the price of soda goes up another 35% sales in some places could drop.

So of course this is fodder for the proposed "soda tax" on sweetened beverages; either with sugar or high fructose corn syrup. You don't have to be a medical expert to know sweets make us fatter and excess body weight increases your risk of heart disease, type-2 diabetes, and stroke.

For the study, appearing in the American Journal of Public Health, researchers raised the price of a can of soda by 35% or 45% in the cafeteria at a Boston hospital. Soda in a hospital...brilliant!

In the end, the scientists found a price increase of 35% on regular soda caused a 26% decline in the sales of regular soda, so the researchers encourage public health officials to consider this information when proposing a soda tax.

I know. It's America and if you want to drink soda, eat fast food, and smoke, it's your right, and maybe taxing soda is unfair, but your unhealthy choice ultimately becomes our unhealthy choice. Our overburdened and broken health care system will eventually bear the weight of your, uh, weight. A new report says by 2018, medical-related expenses due to obesity could reach $344 billion, or 21% of U.S. health care spending.

That's a lot of money for an already cash-strapped country. So I'm in favor of a soda tax, but if you're not, I guess it's your right to grab your shotgun, pitchfork, torch, and teabag, and march in the streets.