There’s Now a Soda Tax in Philadelphia, but Not Because Sugar Is Bad for You

Four years ago, a city-council member in Richmond, California, got his colleagues to put a measure on the local ballot asking voters to impose an extra tax on sugary drinks like soda. The council member, Jeff Ritterman, had special insight into how sugar was ruining his neighbors’ health. Before becoming a politician, he’d spent nearly thirty years as the chief of cardiology at Kaiser Permanente’s campus in Richmond, a bleak industrial town north of Berkeley, where the biggest employer is a Chevron refinery and many residents are poor. As in other communities with similar demographics, half of Richmond’s children were overweight or obese. It was clear to Ritterman that this had a lot to do with their sugar consumption. Taxing soda, one of the biggest sources of sugar in children’s diets, seemed like a sensible response.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

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