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Tax sodapop to fight fat, US health officials say

Friday, July 31, 2009 WASHINGTON: US health sheriffs want to ride the sugary drinks that are helping to make Americans fat out of town, or at least off Americans' menu of choice, and one way they suggest going about it is by taxing sodapop."The average American consumes roughly 250 calories more today than they did two or three decades ago, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Thomas Frieden, said at the "Weight of the Nation" conference on obesity held in Washington this week."And of that, about 120 calories is in the form of sodas and other sugared food and beverages," he said.The average daily-recommended caloric intake for adults is about 2,000 calories per day, a number that varies depending on a person's sex, height, weight and rate of activity.Two-thirds of American adults are obese or overweight -- or shaped more like the bulbous Orangina bottle than the hourglass classic Coca-Cola bottle -- and obesity-related illnesses cost the United States nearly 150 billion dollars a year, health officials at the conference were told.

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