In this Perspective paper, Brownell and Frieden support applying a special tax to sugared beverages as one way to help manage the obesity epidemic. One of their arguments is that a penny-per-ounce excise tax could reduce consumption of sugared beverages by more than 10%, and that such a behaviour change would be very difficult to achieve through education alone. They also proposed that the revenue generated could become a key tool in efforts to improve health, especially with regard to the obesity problem.
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