A piece in the New England Journal of Medicine by Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, and Thomas Frieden, the health commissioner for the city of New York, support the concept of a penny-per-ounce excise tax on sugar-sweetened soft drinks.
They argue that such a tax could cut of these beverages consumption by 10 percent. The proceeds, the article says, could be used to promote or even subsidize more healthful foods whose boosters lack the marketing resources of Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
According to the authors, "a sales tax on sugared drinks would generate considerable revenue, and as with the tax on tobacco, it could become a key tool in efforts to improve health."
The average American consumes 400 calories a day from beverages, and evidence suggests that your body doesn't compensate for liquid calories by consuming fewer calories later, as it does with calories in solid form.