Twenty-six states intrude on our nutritional freedom by taxing soda at a higher rate than other groceries, and seventeen states do the same for candy. In North Carolina, groceries are exempt from sales taxes, but both candy and soda are not. As if that were not bad enough in “the land of the free,” legislators continue to push for new and heftier taxes in this realm, with new soda taxes pending in fourteen states.

A new report out from the Tax Foundation, however, lays waste to the moral bases and purported economic outcomes of these overbearing sin taxes. My latest FFF commentary, “Nanny State Disapproval: Manipulating Your Diet through Taxation,” elaborates on this report and unravels the non-issue of obesity, at least as far as sin taxes are concerned.

A lot of the material I got for this piece came from the sharp but comedic documentary, “Fat Head” (2009), which I highly recommend.