BURLINGTON, Vt. -
We have continuing coverage on a highly controversial topic in the state taxing sugar sweetened drinks like soda. Obesity is a growing epidemic in our country. Some health experts feel curbing attitudes is the best way to change behavior.
Several researchers at UVM laid out their findings to see if a tax on sugar sweetened beverages will in fact deter people from drinking them and therefore help curb obesity.
Do you know just how many calories you're consuming in what you drink? Health experts say a woman should only be consuming around six teaspoons of sugar a day or 100 calories; men nine teaspoons or 150 calories. Yet, the average person is downing around 28 and a half teaspoons. That's 475 calories of sugar per day.
"The weight gain by the American population in the last 30 years has come from sugar sweetened beverages," said Tina Zuk, Government Relations Director, for the American Heart Association.
So some health organizations are proposing a penny an ounce excise tax. The purpose is to make you think twice before you buy that soda.
"If we want healthcare costs to go down and we want people to be healthier, we have to do things like deterring consumption of unhealthy products. This tax is a way to do it," said Zuk.
One argument against the tax, is that the state will lose money if people cross the border, for example, into New Hampshire to avoid the extra tax.
"We heard today that that's not true that there has been research done that shows definitively that doesn't happen," said Zuk.
In fact, if the one cent per ounce tax is implemented, it will raise nearly 28 million dollars.
Jonathon Besett, a UVM student, believes the tax could work to combat obesity, "I think that it would be helpful and that is a smaller part of they talked about it being a part of a tool box in fighting the obesity thing."
There is no such thing as a magic bullet, but they hope by increasing the tax on sugary beverages. This can be one tool to help curb the obesity epidemic.
For more information on the proposed tax check out http://allianceforahealthiervt.org/
