Jul 13, 2015 05:44 PM
http://www.wired.com/2015/07/mexicos-sod...-us-learn/
EXCERPT: Last fall, Berkeley, California, became the first city in the United States to pass a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages—soda pop, sweetened teas, sugary juices, and energy drinks. Proponents say the tax will discourage the consumption of a nutrition-free, even dangerous category of beverage. Critics counter with claims of an over-reaching nanny state whose interventions will do nothing to curb rates of obesity and diabetes.
To figure out who’s right, it’d be nice to have some data. [...] In 2013, Mexico’s congress passed a one-peso-per-liter tax on sugary beverages that went into effect all over the country—effectively raising their prices by 10 percent—and an 8 percent sales tax on junk foods including chips, cookies, candy, and ice cream. Both taxes went into effect in January 2014.
This policy change was both surprising and not, considering how much soda Mexicans drink: an average of 163 liters, or 43 gallons per capita per year, to be exact. That’s 40 percent more than the United States, which comes in at second place with 31 gallons. At the same time, about 71 percent of Mexican adults are overweight, and 32 percent are obese, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. This is very similar to the US, where 70 percent of adults are overweight and 36.5 percent are obese. The diabetes rates of the two countries are similar as well, hovering between 11 and 12 percent of the adult population.
[...] During the first year of Mexico’s soda tax, purchases of sugar-sweetened beverages “went down on average about six percent, relative to what we think it would have been otherwise,” Ng says. (Her calculations took into account a preexisting downward trend in soda purchases in Mexico.) The decline accelerated as the year went on, reaching 12 percent by December....
EXCERPT: Last fall, Berkeley, California, became the first city in the United States to pass a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages—soda pop, sweetened teas, sugary juices, and energy drinks. Proponents say the tax will discourage the consumption of a nutrition-free, even dangerous category of beverage. Critics counter with claims of an over-reaching nanny state whose interventions will do nothing to curb rates of obesity and diabetes.
To figure out who’s right, it’d be nice to have some data. [...] In 2013, Mexico’s congress passed a one-peso-per-liter tax on sugary beverages that went into effect all over the country—effectively raising their prices by 10 percent—and an 8 percent sales tax on junk foods including chips, cookies, candy, and ice cream. Both taxes went into effect in January 2014.
This policy change was both surprising and not, considering how much soda Mexicans drink: an average of 163 liters, or 43 gallons per capita per year, to be exact. That’s 40 percent more than the United States, which comes in at second place with 31 gallons. At the same time, about 71 percent of Mexican adults are overweight, and 32 percent are obese, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. This is very similar to the US, where 70 percent of adults are overweight and 36.5 percent are obese. The diabetes rates of the two countries are similar as well, hovering between 11 and 12 percent of the adult population.
[...] During the first year of Mexico’s soda tax, purchases of sugar-sweetened beverages “went down on average about six percent, relative to what we think it would have been otherwise,” Ng says. (Her calculations took into account a preexisting downward trend in soda purchases in Mexico.) The decline accelerated as the year went on, reaching 12 percent by December....