Imposing a penny-per-ounce tax on sugar-sweetened beverages could substantially reduce consumption, help prevent obesity and diabetes, and raise money to fund public health programs, Yale Professor Kelly Brownell and New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden argue in an upcoming opinion article in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Brownell and Frieden wrote that sugar-sweetened beverages “may be the single-largest driver of the obesity epidemic,” and suggested that taxing sugared beverages could work in the same way that taxing tobacco has played a role in reducing consumption and becoming “a key tool in efforts to improve health.”

via Yale Professor Adds Voice For Tax On Sugared Drinks — Courant.com.