The country's love affair with soda and other sugary beverages is having an impact on people's waistlines and health, and as a result many states including New York are considering a tax on sweetened drinks. Sports drinks, regular sodas and fruit punch all have as many as 200 calories per serving which health experts say contributes directly to the nation's obesity problem. The health issues don't stop there either. New analysis from the University of California, San Francisco finds that excess consumption of soft drinks led to 130,000 cases of diabetes and 14,000 cases of heart disease between 1990 and 2000.
Some health policy officials including CDC Director Thomas Friedan favor a "sugar tax" on all soft drinks of one cent per ounce. Studies suggest the tax might cut soda consumption by 10 percent just as tobacco taxes have reduced smoking rates. But, the American Beverage Association has protested such proposals, arguing that a soft drink tax would place an unfair burden on consumers that may not result in any meaningful reduction in calories across people's total diet.
So far, New York's legislature has not passed a "sugar tax" bill.
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