BY: CLAIRE KIM
Obesity is something that we as people can prevent by simply making better food choices. But because a lot of food companies are shoving our faces with products that contain high calories and sugars, it’s not the easiest to achieve a healthy routine. However, ever since the soda tax was created, it seems that there is a reduction in the amount of soda that is being purchased and consumed.
According to the article, it states that they used the same method to draw away alcohol and tobacco addicts from purchasing those harmful foods. With the customers purchasing less soda cans and drinking more water, in general, we can conclude that the health in the US has improved.
To prove Berkeley’s analysis of whether placing the soda tax helped decrease or increase the wave of consumers, a group of people took a survey based on the responses from the people that they interviewed. They based their experiment from the people in Oakland and San Francisco vs themselves and it turns out that Berkeley’s statement was correct.
“After controlling for the age, gender, race, ethnicity and education level of those who took the survey, researchers found that the drinking habits of Berkeley residents were starkly different from those of similar people in Oakland and San Francisco.” The results from their experiment showed that Berkeley consumed less sugar-sweetened beverages than San Francisco and Oakland and drank more water.
This shows us that just by raising the price of sugar-sweetened beverages, it can really help the community a lot health-wise.
claire kim. 