Soft Drink Taxes: A Policy Brief: A policy brief from the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity explores the potential impact of a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages.

Publication Date: October 2009

Publisher: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Author(s):

Research Area: Health

Type: Report

Abstract:

Sugar-sweetened beverages offer little or no nutrition. However, in spite of their lack of nutrition, sugar-sweetened beverages remain a staple of the American diet. These drinks are inexpensive, abundant, and appeal to our taste for sugar. They are also heavily marketed, especially to kids.

Emerging research suggests that consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages may be at least partly responsible for the childhood obesity epidemic, and that a tax on these beverages may help to reduce children’s consumption of them and provide much-needed revenue.

This policy brief, developed by the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity explores the potential health and economic benefits of a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages.