Raising the price of sugar-sweetened sodas, coffees, teas and energy, sports and fruit drinks by an average of 31% reduced consumer purchases of those drinks by a third, according to a new analysis of restrictions implemented in five US cities.

“What we measured is how consumers change their consumption in response to price changes,” said study author Scott Kaplan, an assistant professor of economics at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

“For every 1% increase in price, we found a 1% decrease in purchases of these products,” Kaplan said. “The decrease in consumer purchases occurred almost immediately after the taxes were put in place and stayed that way over the next three years of the study.”

  • @Croquette
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    316 months ago

    Fruit juices still have the same issues as sodas where it’s still liquid carbs.

    • @[email protected]
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      76 months ago

      fruit juices can also have actual nutrition like vitamins, minerals, and fiber.

      straight up taxation of drinks, carbs, or calories isnt a smart or viable solution. instead we should be looking at taxing highly processed foods and foods with excessive added sugars, stop subsidizing unhealthy foods like corn used for sugars and factory farmed beef, and start subsidizing foods with redeemable nutritional value

      • @Croquette
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        76 months ago

        A bit better than soda, but fresh fruits have those elements without it being liquid carbs.

      • @[email protected]
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        36 months ago

        Have you read the ingredients on most fruit juices? When’s the last time you had fruit juice with bits of actual fruit? I don’t think I’ve noticed fruit in anything besides orange juice and lemonade, and not most of those

      • @Atomic
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        06 months ago

        You know what else has nutrition like fruits? Actual fruits.