But perhaps the most nauseating session will examine the “impact of sugary drinks in communities of color.” We can already guess what the conclusion will be: Soft drinks disproportionately “harm” urban minorities.
There are two troubling ideas here.
First, it’s the bogus theory that the government can make us healthier. Research repeatedly finds that soft drink taxes are not an effective tool. A newly released study from University of California researchers found that a penny-per-ounce tax on sugary beverages (touted by folks like Brownell) would only reduce the number of calories consumed per person by 9 per day. That’s less than one-half of one percent of a 2,000 calorie diet.
Similarly, an economist with Duke-National University of Singapore discovered that a 40 percent tax on soda would only reduce caloric intake by 12 calories. Many people would simply switch from taxed beverages to untaxed beverages with the same amount of calories. (Orange juice and 2% milk are just as fattening as soda.)
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