Sugar taxes could cut diabetes, heart disease

What if taxing sugary drinks meant lower rates of cardiovascular disease and diabetes? That’s what a recent study by the American Heart Association found.

According to an AHA study, published in the association’s journal, Circulation, a simulation model of three types of taxes on sugary drinks indicated all would lead to significant health advantages and lower health costs. Sugary drinks are tied to diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease.

Researchers working on the study defined sugary drinks as sodas, juice drinks, sports drinks, presweetened iced tea or coffee and electrolyte replacement drinks with 5 or more grams of added sugars per 12 ounces.

Boston researchers created a nationally representative microsimulation model to test three types of taxes on sugary drinks. One was a flat “volume tax” by drink volume, which is $0.01 per ounce. This is the only tax U.S. cities have used so far. Another is a “tiered sugar content tax” by three levels of sugar content. It ranges from $0.00 for under 5 grams of added sugars per 8 ounces to $0.02 per ounce of added sugars for over 20 grams of added sugars per 8 ounces. The last one is a “fixed sugar content tax” by absolute sugar content, which is $0.01 per teaspoon of added sugars.

By the numbers, researchers found a volume-based tax could avert 850,000 cardiovascular events and prevent 269,000 cases of diabetes; a tiered tax could avert 1.67 million events and stop 531,000 diabetes cases; an an absolute tax could prevent 1.8 million cardiovascular events and halt 550,000 diabetes cases.