Will Give Brainliest to the correct answer 100 points as well! Soda tax—Should people have to pay an extra tax on soda or junk food? [image: People protest a proposed two-cent-per-ounce tax on sugary drinks. Write a conversation between two people with different perspectives on your topic. Your conversation can be in the form of instant messages, text messages, or social media status updates.

A healthy diet is essential to a long and vibrant life. But there is increasing evidence that our diets

are not as healthy as we would like. Obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and other conditions linked

to what we eat and drink are major challenges globally. By some estimates, obesity alone may be

responsible for almost 3 million deaths each year and some $2 trillion in medical costs and lost

productivity (Dobbs et al. 2014). In response, many nations, states, and cities are considering

how policies could improve what we eat and drink.

This report takes a detailed look at one such policy: taxing unhealthy foods and drinks.

Denmark, Finland, France, Hungary, Mexico, the Navajo Nation, and the city of Berkeley,

California, have enacted such taxes, primarily on sugar-sweetened beverages and energy-dense

processed foods (what we commonly call “junk food”). We evaluate the rationale behind such

taxes, review the evidence on their effects, analyze different ways of structuring them, draw

lessons from experience with taxes on tobacco, alcohol, and the carbon dioxide emissions that

cause climate change, and offer a framework for assessing the benefits and costs of nutritionfocused taxation.

It is not possible to offer a blanket assessment of whether taxing unhealthy foods and

drinks makes sense. Nutrition policy is complex, involving the interplay of social, cultural,

economic, and biological factors, uncertainty about the links between nutrition and health, and

tradeoffs among numerous policy levers. Tax policy considerations add more complications.

Taxes can influence what people eat and drink, but they also have important limits and costs.

Whether taxes are a promising option depends on the specifics of the social and economic

environments, the nutritional harms being targeted, the way taxes are designed, and the range of

other policy options available. It also depends on one’s views about the appropriate role of

government.

This report examines a wide range of factors that determine the benefits and costs of

using taxes to improve nutrition. That assessment yields ten findings:

1. Excess sugar consumption stands out as a health risk warranting policy attention. Health

concerns have been raised about, and taxes proposed for, other nutrients and ingredients,

including fat, saturated fat, salt, and artificial sweeteners. But recent research and policy

discussions reveal important disagreements about their health effects. Sugar, in contrast,

is consistently identified as contributing to rising obesity, diabetes, and other metabolic

health risks. Sugar in drinks may be a particular concern.

2. Taxes can change what we eat and drink. Businesses typically pass a substantial fraction

of taxes into retail prices. In response, people eat and drink less of targeted products, less

of complementary products, and more of substitutes. The size of these responses varies.

TAX POLICY CENTER | URBAN INSTITUTE & BROOKINGS INSTITUTION 1

Consumers appear to find it easier to switch away from sugary drinks, which have many

alternatives, than from other foods and drinks.

3. The health effects of nutrition-focused taxes depend on all the ways consumption

changes. It is not sufficient to focus on reduced consumption of targeted products. The

sugar reduction from taxing sweetened drinks, for example, could be partly offset if

consumers switch to juice and beer or eat more bread or cookies. The sugar reduction

could be amplified if people cut back on potato chips and similar snacks that go well with

sugary drinks. Some studies track these effects, typically finding small to moderate

offsets, but more research is needed to document how taxes change entire diets, how

diets change over prolonged periods, and how responses vary across different groups of

people.

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