An article published in the January issue of Health Affairs suggests boosting the tax on sugary drinks is one way to slow down staggering obesity and diabetes rates in the United States.
In fact, increasing the tax on those drinks by just a penny per ounce could reduce the number of obese adults in this country by 1.5 percent and new cases of diabetes by 2.6 percent, according to university researchers.
And long term, the results would be much more significant. Over 10 years, they argue, the tax would prevent 2 .4 million diabetes person-years, 95,000 coronary heart events, 8,000 strokes, and 26,000 premature deaths while avoiding more than $17 billion in medical costs.
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