Missing the obvious

The numbers are in and body-size bigots are not happy. According to reports on a soon-to-be released study, slapping a sin tax on soda pop has done exactly bupkis in reducing the girth of the nation.

The 16-year study, to be printed in the journal, "Contemporary Economic Policy," looked at soft-drink taxation and how it impacted body mass index. The BMI is a crude and imperfect assessment, based on height and weight, which many have been convinced is the be all, end all when it comes to health, insurability and an individual's worthiness as a human being.

The study reportedly finds that a 1-percent tax increase on fizzy drinks equates to a BMI decrease of 0.003 points and that overall, such taxes had only a tiny impact on obesity.

Predictably, the response as of Friday was the broad hint that states should increase taxes on soda.

"Our results leave open the possibility that large taxes that are communicated to consumers are still worthwhile to consider as policy options, but small tax changes will not work," study author Jason Fletcher said in a news release.

Such statements miss the obvious: The reason soda taxes don't have the net result of whittling our waists is because soda has little to do with the size of our waists in the first place.

Increasing soda taxes might have the effect of reducing soda consumption — which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, given that pop rots teeth, leaches bones, and gives people of every size an unnecessary sugar zap — but it will not make a fat person thin.

Sin taxes should only be discussed (but not necessarily imposed) in the context of issues that are truly moral issues. Body size isn't a moral issue. It is the result of primarily genetic influences, and the way any given body is able to process simple carbohydrates like sugary cola.

While we would all be better off drinking less soda, government dictums about what to consume — whether in the form of a direct ban on a food or drink, or a backdoor discouragement like a greater tax — should be nipped in the bud.