April 4, 2010
Step Away From the Coke Machine
Don Hamerman for The Chronicle
The Yale U. psychologist Kelly D. Brownell suggests a penny-per-ounce tax on soda pop and other sugar-sweetened drinks, with the revenue going to offset the health-care costs of obesity-related diseases. The beverage industry is flatly opposed.
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Don Hamerman for The Chronicle
The Yale U. psychologist Kelly D. Brownell suggests a penny-per-ounce tax on soda pop and other sugar-sweetened drinks, with the revenue going to offset the health-care costs of obesity-related diseases. The beverage industry is flatly opposed.
Sometimes an idea takes a while to catch on.
In a 1994 op-ed essay for The New York Times, Kelly D. Brownell proposed taxing junk food. The response, he recalls, was immediate and powerful. Among the outraged was Rush Limbaugh, who deemed Mr. Brownell a member of the "high-fat gestapo." A few furious snackers wrote letters to the Yale psychologist noting that they knew where he lived.
What a difference 15 years make. With obesity now an acknowledged national problem,
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