Tax High-Calorie Drinks To Fight Obesity?

WASHINGTON, DC (WUSA) -- The group that has so often made headlines with it's food safety recommendations is now urging congress to impose a tax on high-calorie drinks like soda pop, sports drinks, and some tea and juices.

"We're proposing that soft drinks be slapped with an excise tax because soft drinks are a major contributor to obesity," says Michael Jacobson, the Executive Director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. "In fact, soft drinks are the only food or beverage shown to promote weight gain."

Jacobson believes the money raised from the tax could promote healthier living.

"The money would be used, ideally, to fund health promotion efforts of all different kinds like bike paths and public paid announcements to encourage physical activity and better nutrition," says Jacobson. "But the reality is that if congress levied a tax on soft drinks it would use the money mostly to fund expanded health care coverage."

Jacobson estimates that each penny in tax added to the cost of a bottle or can of high-calorie drinks would cut consumption by about one percent, "making at least a little dent in the obesity problem." Jacobson says a seven cent per container tax would raise about $10 billion each year.

Says Jacobson, "It's worth noting that at least a dozen states have taxes on soft drinks, typically a sales tax, sometimes an excise tax, that collectively raise over a billion dollars a year, so there is real precedence for governments taxing soft drinks. Soft drinks are unnecessary. They're sort of a luxury. They don't contribute to a healthy diet. They just undermine it, and it is an appropriate product for government to tax."

Jacobson can count on a fight from the American Beverage Association.

"This is a discriminatory tax on one product," says Susan Neely, the President and CEO of the ABA. "It's regressive, its gonna' hurt people who can least afford to pay, and it's not going to work."

Neely tells 9NEWS NOW that education programs would be far more effective than a tax in the battle against childhood obesity.

"It (a tax) could confuse us and make us think we've actually done something to solve obesity and it's just not going to work," she says. "We all know we have to cut calories. I have kids and I try to explain to them all the time that you've got to watch what you eat and get enough exercise. And those are the real solutions, so we need education programs, particularly in the schools. That will help our children learn how to do that."