Tax sugary drinks to fight obesity, WHO urges governments

Tax sugary drinks to fight obesity, WHO urges governments:
"GENEVA (Reuters) - Governments should tax sugary drinks to fight the global epidemics of obesity and diabetes, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday, recommendations industry swiftly branded "discriminatory" and "unproven".
A 20 percent price increase could reduce consumption of sweet drinks by the same proportion, the WHO said in "Fiscal Policies for Diet and Prevention of Noncommunicable Diseases", a report issued on World Obesity Day.
..."We are now in a place where we can say there is enough evidence to move on this and we encourage countries to implement effective tax on sugar-sweetened beverages to prevent obesity," Temo Waqanivalu, of WHO's department of Noncommunicable Diseases and Health Promotion, told a briefing.
...The WHO said there was increasing evidence that taxes and subsidies influence purchasing behavior and could be used to curb consumption of sweet drinks..."