See David Leonhardt's NYTimes article, published on 19 May 2009:

Sodas a Tempting Tax Target
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/business/economy/20leonhardt.html

This seems like a no-brainer to me (coming from someone who doesn't drink the stuff), but it is a pretty contentious area in this land of freedom we live in, as the comments on Mr. Leonhardt's article will attest.

One thing that definitely seems in order is that something needs to be done about the spiraling cost of healthy foods relative to junk food (as shown in the "Change in Monthly Food Prices" chart in the NYT article). Perhaps it would be best to re-frame any kind of junk food tax as a "fruit and veggie subsidy."

And *most* definitely there should not be taxes on health club memberships (as Mr. Leonhardt claims there is in New Jersey), but rather tax breaks and health insurance discounts for people that have such memberships (and actually use them). I've even considered channeling donations to TeamHuman.org for this purpose, but the logistics on how to make that happen are unclear to me at this point.

Former FDA commissioner Dr. David Kessler has been on the media circuit discussing his new book about the causes of excessive eating. His message is that the U.S.'s problem with obesity results from a surfeit of "hyper-palatable," high-caloric density foods laden with fat, sugar, and/or salt. This type of food has the ability to "hijack" certain neural circuitry in our brains related to reward and conditions us to want to consume more for psychological (not nutritional) reasons.

The increasing marketing and consumption of these foods, he says, has been a major contributor to the meteoric rise in type II diabetes in the past decade and is particularly worrisome for its impact on children, where this sort of conditioning can set them up for life-long problems. Here are some links:

Washington Post (27 Apr 2009):
Crave Man
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/26/AR2009042602711.html

Wall Street Journal (28 Apr 2009):
The Science and Psychology Behind Overeating
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124084009832659309.html

Interview with Moira Gunn on Tech Nation (3 May 2009):
Our Brains on Food & Other Tales of Modern Life
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/moira-gunn/our-brains-on-food-other_b_194584.html

SF Bay area appearances, 8 May 2009:
http://events.marinij.com/san-francisco-ca/events/show/86657011-david-a-kessler-the-end-of-overeating
http://events.mercurynews.com/palo-alto-ca/events/show/86812149-david-kessler-presents-the-end-of-overeating

His book:
The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-End-of-Overeating/David-A-Kessler/e/9781605297859