Soda Taxes Beginning to Bubble Up

View Soda Taxes bubbling up in a larger map


Though we may not be seeing something like Denmark's "Fat Tax" in the States anytime soon, legislation is popping up around the country to cut down on the one of the biggest and most infamous sources of obesity.  This map points out the varying levels of taxation with thumbtack representation - plus a few other facts.


Key: 
$ - highest level of additional sales tax on soda at 7%
Green thumbtack - 5.75% to 6.5% tax
Light blue thumbtack - 4% to 5.5% tax
Yellow thumbtack - 1% to 3%
No thumbtack - No tax
Fast food icon - high levels of consumption and other facts

Soda Marketing and the American Teen

When you're trying to get people into healthy habits - be it a more nutritional diet, creating exercise routines, etc, most of the focus is going to be on an ad campaign promoting these goals.   Some focus will be on discouraging sugary food and drinks, loafing on the couch, video games and so on.  Recently, healthy initiatives have to expend more and more  effort into pushing against this seemingly implacable structure that is the snack industry. 

But no one really considers that it might start pushing back.

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Yale Professor says Soda's the New Tobacco

Soda and Teen Violence - The Missing Link?

The Menino administration will be pleased to hear about this latest study coming out of the University of Vermont.  A survey meant to gauge the overall level of youth violence in the Boston area yielded unexpected results  when David Hemenway, Director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center was asked by a colleague to include some questions about diet and behavior. 

The study was based of data taken from 1,878 high school students throughout 22 public schools in the area.  Sara Solnick, of the UVM Department of Economics and former student of Hemenway's, found that high soda consumption in subjects correlated with increased aggression.  This included being significantly more likely to have carried a knife or gun and acted violently towards peers, family members or partners.