[dredds]

Imagine if we taxed pre-existing conditions, like propensity to diabetes or obesity. Your genetics will set your tax bracket. Politically-incorrect enough?

Right, so target drinks.. slippery slope.. all sugar.

Then people buy the cheaper cuts of meat to afford a soda or two. Bacon ends with huge chunks of fat. Congrats, we just swapped one issue for another.

Isn't orange/apple/etc juice full of sugar? What about whole fruits? What about flying in bananas from the other side of the planet? Can we do that with less carbon emissions?

I'm just getting started. :P

[rabanne]

Taxing sugary drinks can lead to more consumption of proven-safe sugar subsitutes like saccharin and erythritol. And that's a good thing. It will definitely boost sales of all-subsitute drinks such as diet coke, and regular sugar drinks will try to use low sugar and more sugar subsitutes.

We've already seen producers lowering on sugars due to the trend of avoiding sugar. People won't buy cheaper cuts of meat. Producers will try to dodge the tax by using sugar substitutes, and it will result to overall positive effect to the public health. Also, Bacon does not have bad influence on your body. Fat does not cause cardiovascular problems, diabetes or other accusations of diseases it faced in the 70s.

Fruit juices are bad for you because of, you guessed it, sugar. Creating an incentive to swap out juices for real fruits? Or an incentive to drive producers to extract sugar and replace them with sugar substitutes? I'm in.