A letter to the Editor on the proposed soda tax in New York. As it appeared in the Times-Herald-Record
Friday, December 26, 2008



I could support Gov Patterson痴 proposal to tax soda if it included all soda, but not just the sweet stuff. Average consumption is 600 12 oz cans per person each year. A Harvard study blames soda for doubling childhood obesity in the last fifteen years. Soda is not only tied to obesity, but also linked to diabetes, osteoporosis and other conditions. The High Fructose Corn Syrup is known to contribute to obesity by stimulating hunger. If Gov Patterson would exclude diet sodas from the fat-tax, he needs to do more homework. Diet sodas still contain enough caffeine to make them addictive according to Johns Hopkins researchers. The artificial sweetener in most diet sodas is a rat poison called aspartame. It is linked to more health problems than HFCS or sugar. There are some one hundred neurological symptoms, including seizures, caused by aspartame when it interferes with aspartic acid, a neurotransmitter. As it metabolizes some of the aspartame converts to a highly toxic substance, methanol. Also, aspartame is linked to increased apatite and obesity. A fat-tax or health tax should be on all soda. If only one is taxed, it should be on diet soda.