| As a lifelong soda addict, one major benefit of my recent move to Mexico City has been access to the nation’s Coca-Cola, which is sweetened with real cane sugar. Unfortunately, my go-to beverage could become more expensive. The Mexican government recently announced plans to hike an existing tax on sugary drinks. In a news conference, President Claudia Sheinbaum said the increased levy is for health reasons and all money raised will go directly to a fund aimed at improving well-being. The proposal would have to go o through congress, where Sheinbaum’s party has large majorities. The link between sugar and negative health ramifications is clear, according to Cristina Del Toro Badessa, wellness director and physician at Artisan Med Spas in Georgia. “Sugar’s kind of the enemy when it comes to optimal health,” she said, as it’s been linked to higher risks of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. But do such tax-related efforts to curb consumption actually work? In Mexico, where the average person drinks 166 liters of soda a year according to the country’s health secretary, these initiatives have actually already made a dent. One study found that after a tax of 1 peso (5 cents) was added to all drinks with added sugar in the country in 2014, by 2015, household purchases of those beverages decreased by 9.7%. Similar rules have had an impact in US cities, too. A UC Berkeley study of Boulder, Colorado, Oakland, California, Philadelphia, Seattle and San Francisco found that a 33% increase in prices of sugar-sweetened beverages after tax increases resulted in a 33% decline in purchase volumes. Unsurprisingly, Mexico’s beverage industry, Asociación Mexicana de Bebidas, is against the change, saying in a statement that it “will not solve the health problems it seeks to combat and will generate considerable social, labor and economic costs.” And of course, one initiative isn’t going to address all the health concerns in Mexico, which has higher instances of diabetes and obesity and shorter life expectancy than other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries. But even a small change may still be worthwhile, says Parke Wilde, a food economist at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. “No one thing causes a problem, and there’s no one thing that provides the full remedy,” he says. “You can’t think of a sugar sweetened beverage tax as a cure for all our public health nutrition ills, but it’s one piece of the recipe for success.” Even if you don’t live in a place where higher costs make you think twice about cracking open a Coke, try drinking one less per day, says Del Toro Badessa. Drinking it alongside a meal can also help you cut down. Mexico’s president says she’s targeting sugar consumption to make her citizens healthier. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump announced in July that Coca-Cola has agreed to use real cane sugar in the US version instead of high fructose corn syrup. The company has confirmed that this new brand will be available this fall. — Kelsey Butler
Bloomberg Philanthropies, the philanthropic organization of Michael Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP, has supported measures to curb sugar consumption, including in Mexico. | 
