Taxation of sugary beverages.

Many countries have taxed sugar-sweetened beverages, including soft drinks, sodas, fruit juices and sports drinks, to curb their consumption and encourage them to be re-formulated to reduce the burden of disease associated with the consumption of sugary drinks. Policies include taxes on production (e.g. Mexico, Belgium and the Philippines), on sugar scales (e.g. Chile, the United Kingdom and Spain) and on absolute sugars (e.g. Sri Lanka, Mauritius and South Africa). Yujin Lee of Tufts University and colleagues modeled the health and economic impact of tax designs on sugary drinks in the United States.The
Cardiovascular Prediction (CVD-PREDICT) model is used to simulate and quantify the effects of sugary beverage tax designs on cardiovascular and type 2 diabetes (T2DM) morbidity - a model that combines the annual probability of each person's transition to heart metabolic disease. Baseline data on diet, lifestyle, socio-demographic characteristics and heart metabolic risk are derived from the most recent National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey cycle. Sugary beverage taxes, implementation costs (including political and industrial costs) and health care costs (including formal and informal costs) are modeled on 10 years and lifetimes (an average of 28.7 years), while basic cases include ongoing voluntary industry adjustments.