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A group of health officials in the U.S. are calling for a “soda tax” in order to combat obeisty.

New York City health commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley, nutritionist Dr. Walter Willett of the Harvard School of Public Health, Kelly Brownell, an obesity expert at Yale University in Connecticut and others said the current taxes do not go far enough.

“We propose an excise tax of one percent per ounce for any beverages that have any added caloric sweetener,” they wrote in their proposal, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The group of seveen health professionals say studies show that taxes could make a significant impact.

The report is calling for an excise tax of a penny per ounce on caloric soft drinks and other beverages that contain added sweeteners such as sucrose, high-fructose corn syrup or fruit-juice concentrates.

“A tax of one cent per ounce of beverage would increase the cost of a 20-ounce soft drink by 15 to 20 percent.” They estimate that would lead to a 10 percent drop in consumption, or enough to affect weight.

“A consumer who drinks a conventional soft drink (20 ounces or 591 millilitres) every day and switches to a beverage below this threshold would consume approximately 174 fewer calories each day,” they wrote.

According to Dr. David Ludwig, an associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, sodo is one product which contributes to obestiy.

“There are certain products which make a strong contribution to the obesity epidemic while, conversely, there is no plausible public health benefit [from them],” noted Dr. David Ludwig,

“None of us are arguing that sugar-sweetened beverages should be banned, but the government needs to raise revenues where we have a huge national deficit,” said Ludwig, who is also director of the Optimal Weight for Life Program at Children’s Hospital Boston. “We have critical health legislation pending and the requirement to do so without further increasing the deficit.

“What better way to accomplish both lowering health care costs through obesity prevention and funding expansion of health insurance coverage than to add a tax to unhealthy foods,” he continued.

According to the CDC, during the past 20 years there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in the United States. In 2008, only one state (Colorado) had a prevalence of obesity less than 20%. Thirty-two states had a prevalence equal to or greater than 25%; six of these states (Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia ) had a prevalence of obesity equal to or greater than 30%.

The report was published online by the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday.