“A soda tax is a critical step in the effort to reduce obesity, especially among children, and to promote better nutrition,” said Mark Dunlea, Executive Director of the Hunger Action Network. “Proceeds from the soda tax should be clearly earmarked to support anti-obesity, nutrition and health care programs.”

The soda tax proposed last year by Governor Paterson would have generated more than $400 million annually. Among possible initiatives that could be funded, Hunger Action  supports increasing school meal reimbursements (part of the long-delayed Health Schools Act); increasing funding for the purchase and distribution of locally grown fruits and vegetables, including doubling the value of food stamps (SNAP) used as Farmers. Markets and Farm stands; and providing more resources for the work and initiatives of the NYS Food Policy Council.

In a recent op-ed Dr. Knickman, President of the NYS Health Foundation, noted that “A chief argument against the soda tax is that due to its regressive nature, it will disproportionately hurt the poor who spend a greater proportion of their income on food. However, they will also benefit the most by reducing their soda consumption, thereby improving their health outcomes. To counteract the soda tax’s regressive nature, tax revenue generated should go to health-related programs that benefit the poor.”

Sugary soft drinks have been pinpointed repeatedly in medical studies as the biggest contributors to our obesity epidemic, which is impacting one in four New Yorkers.  Obesity is linked to higher rates of many preventable illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, asthma and hypertension.  High sugary soft drink consumption increases the risk of diabetes by 83 percent in women according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Nearly 25 percent of New York's children and 67 percent of adults are overweight or obese, costing $6.1 billion a year to treat diabetes, heart disease and other obesity-related problems. 81 percent of those medical costs are already born by the taxpayer through Medicaid and Medicare payments. 

Earlier this year, Elie Ward of the American Academy of Pediatrics in New York said that "soda and other sugar-sweetened drinks are the leading single contributor to obesity. Raising the price of this liquid candy will put children and teens on a path to a healthier diet."

One of every five calories in the American diet is liquid. The nation's single biggest "food" is soda.

“Soft drinks are linked to diabetes and obesity in the way that tobacco is to lung cancer,” according to Barry Popkin, a nutrition specialist at the University of North Carolina. Every 10 percent price increase on cigarettes reduced sales by about 3 percent over all, and 7 percent among teenagers, according to the 2005 book “Prescription for a Healthy Nation.”

A study from Harvard Medical School determined that each additional 12 ounce sugary soft drink consumed per day increases the odds of a child becoming obese by 60 percent. If the sugary soft drink tax helps to achieve an overall 5 percent reduction in consumption, that would result in an average of 4,100 calories saved per year per person, about 1.2 pounds.  This would go a long way in helping reverse the obesity epidemic.

One new study estimates that 24 million Americans now have diabetes, more than four times the number in 1980. The total direct and indirect cost to Americans is $218 billion each year - an average of $1,900 per American household. Each year, diabetes contributes to the deaths of more than 200,000 Americans.

The calories from sugar-sweetened beverages are fundamentally different in the body than those from food. The main sweetener in soda — high-fructose corn syrup — can increase fats in the blood called triglycerides, which raises the risk of heart problems, diabetes and other health woes. This sweetener also doesn't spur production of insulin to make the body "process" calories, nor does it spur leptin, a substance that tamps down appetite, as other carbohydrates do.