05.14.09
Because sports drinks are hurting America
The US Senate is considering a federal tax on soft drinks, including sports drinks, and exempting artificial sweeteners.
While on the surface I don’t have a problem with the tax in general, I really would prefer if they didn’t have an exemption for diet sodas. Diet sodas aren’t inherently any healthier than non-diet ones; while they are non-caloric, they apparently still cause the same insulin response as sugar sodas, and it’s that which leads to weight gain and health problems.
In addition, the inclusion of “sports drinks” is rather puzzling. Sports drinks are generally used in conjunction with healthy activities, and they actually help people to perform those activities better even when spat out. Okay, so people could get around the tax by drinking Gatorade instead of Coke, but Gatorade also doesn’t have the addictive properties that Coke has (generally it doesn’t even taste that good unless you need the hydration, unlike Coke which is formulated specifically to make you crave more).