While the current Soda Tax trend looks doomed to fail in New York state and Philadelphia, researchers are already making a suggestion for the target of the next sin tax — pizza.

A team of doctors writing in the Archives of Internal Medicine allege that levying an 10% tax on yummy, delicious, mouth-watering pizza would cut the average person’s caloric intake by around 11.5%.

The study claims that, by raising the price of both soda and pizza by 18%, the average person would cut enough calories to lose 5 lbs in one year.

“While such policies will not solve the obesity epidemic in its entirety and may face considerable opposition from food manufacturers and sellers, they could prove an important strategy to address overconsumption, help reduce energy intake and potentially aid in weight loss and reduced rates of diabetes among U.S. adults,” wrote the team led by Kiyah Duffey of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “Our findings suggest that national, state or local policies to alter the price of less healthful foods and beverages may be one possible mechanism for steering U.S. adults toward a more healthful diet.”

In their conclusion, the researchers lay some blame on government subsidies for corn: “Sadly, we are currently subsidizing the wrong things including the product of corn, which makes the corn syrup in sweetened beverages so inexpensive.”

Tax soda, pizza to cut obesity, researchers say [Reuters]

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