Los Angeles Times, Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger, February 7, 2010
Employing a broad-based lobbying effort, the soft drink industry has smothered a plan to tax sugared beverages — a plan advocates said would have reduced obesity and helped finance healthcare reform.
Only months ago, public health advocates thought the tax would be a natural for congressional Democrats looking for revenue to fund expanded health insurance coverage. The soaring costs of treating ailments related to excess weight — including diabetes and heart disease — added urgency to the issue.
But the White House …

Found via Morten.me
Discussion in The Washington Post on whether soda tax is fair.
As I reported in April, Yale professor Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, and Thomas Frieden, health commissioner for the city of New York, have renewed their push for a soda tax as a means of curbing obesity.
In this week’s “Eat, Drink and Be Healthy” column, Brownell reiterates his belief that a soda tax would dramatically reduce soda consumption. He’s among the many experts who are convinced that over-consumption of sugared …

Regular consumption of sugary beverages such as soda put women at a higher risk for coronary heart disease. This data is part of a new study led by Simmons College Nutrition Professor Teresa Fung.
Published in the April edition of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the study found a significant positive association between sugar-sweetened beverage intake and risk of coronary heart disease. Women who consumed two or more servings of these beverages each day had a 35% higher risk of heart disease compared to those who consumed less than two …