Table 4.

Cherry-Picking (Observational Selection)

A1) Text from Coca-Cola South Africa [70] Several studies of observed market outcomes from SSB taxes in the US have found no impact on obesity rates. These studies conclude that “any reduction in soft drink consumption has been offset by the consumption of other Calories” [97] .” Their findings “cast serious doubt on the assumptions that proponents of large soda taxes make on its likely impacts on population weight [98].” A2) Text from Fletcher, et al, 2010 [97] “Despite this evidence against the effectiveness of soft drink taxes to reduce obesity, we believe that there are at least two directions for further inquiry in this area. First, although there is no evidence that soft drink taxes improve weight outcomes in children and adolescents, the fact that children and adolescents substitute more nutritious whole milk for soft drinks when taxed suggests that there may be broader health benefits that are not yet understood. Second, most historical tax rates are considerably lower than those that have been recently proposed, so that extrapolating our results to much larger increases in tax rates may not be appropriate.”