Research
Adherence
Taxing sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and fast food by 10% decreases their consumption by approximately 6-7%, though the effect on BMI is not statistically significant.
Implementing a 10% tax on SSBs and fast food reduces consumption by 6-7%. However, this alone does not significantly lower BMI. To maximize health impact, tax revenue should be used to subsidize healthy foods, leveraging the larger effect size of subsidies.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
a 10% increase price (i.e. tax) decreased consumption of unhealthful foods by 6% (95%CI = 4–8%; N = 15)... Each 10% price increase reduced sugar-sweetened beverage intake by 7% (95%CI = 3–10%; N = 5); fast foods, by 3% (95%CI = 1–5%; N = 3)... price changes for sugar-sweetened beverages or fast foods did not significantly alter body mass index, based on 4 studies.
Why this rating
Meta-analysis of 15 studies/intervention arms for consumption; limited studies for BMI outcomes.
Source
The prospective impact of food pricing on improving dietary consumption: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Ashkan Afshin et al. · PLoS ONE · 2017
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0172277
Meta-analysis · 30 studiesCited 417×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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