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The Editors

Tax Soda to Help Fight Obesity

New levies in dozens of countries are steering people away from the most dangerous of empty calories.

Sugary drinks help people gain weight.

Sugary drinks help people gain weight.

Photographer: Tim Boyle/Getty Images North America
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Eating too much added sugar has become one of the riskiest health behaviors in the modern world. None too soon, governments are waking up to the fact. Staggering under the burden of increasingly overweight populations, more than 30 countries have put new taxes on sugary beverages, most in just the past four years.

This is good policy, and it needs to be taken further.