Medical Groups Push New Taxes and Marketing Restrictions on Soda: New at Reason

Two leading medical groups, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the American Heart Association (AHA), issued a report this week encouraging legislators and policymakers to hike taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages—the most common of which is soda—and to restrict how companies market soda to kids. This is apparently the first time either group has publicly supported a food tax.

While both organizations are influential players in the public health debate, their reasoning behind new soda taxes doesn’t stand up to scrutiny, writes Baylen Linnekin.

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