>Non-diet soda is almost as bad as cigarettes and we should tax the freaking hell out of it.
Actually diet soda (artificially sweetened and artificially flavoured carbonated water) is shown in studies to be unhealthy too:
"Although these observational data cannot establish causality, consumption of diet soda at least daily was associated with significantly greater risks of select incident metabolic syndrome components and type 2 diabetes." [http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/32/4/688.abstract, "Diet Soda Intake and Risk of Incident Metabolic Syndrome and Type 2 Diabetes in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA)"]
and more recently has been fingered as a cause of increased obesity.
Actually diet soda (artificially sweetened and artificially flavoured carbonated water) is shown in studies to be unhealthy too:
"Although these observational data cannot establish causality, consumption of diet soda at least daily was associated with significantly greater risks of select incident metabolic syndrome components and type 2 diabetes." [http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/32/4/688.abstract, "Diet Soda Intake and Risk of Incident Metabolic Syndrome and Type 2 Diabetes in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA)"]
and more recently has been fingered as a cause of increased obesity.
Google "diet soda obesity".