Right. You're free to choose your diet, but any costs of said diet should not be imposed on the rest of society.

I agree very much with that. But what if food manufacturers come up with new ingredients that escape the tax legally and those ingredients are actual worse for you?

That seems like a pretty minor "what if" to a pretty concrete solution.

what about athletes and body builders who do carb/sugar loading?

What about ppl who eat greasy food and don't exercise?

Als, Wouldn't this merely penalize poor people with long hours and long commutes, poor people who are forced to live in food desserts, poor people who only have enough cash to buy bad food, poor people who have to feed a family of 5 on minimum wage.

A few things:

1. I think most athletes who purposely ingest a lot of carbs are probably not using sugar to accomplish this.

2. Greasy food is not actually bad for you. Grease is essentially fat, which is about as healthy as you can get. In a typical fast food meal, the greasy burger is the healthy part (minus the bun). It's the fries and soft drink which are the unhealthy part.

3. Grains are an incredibly affordable source of calories (it depends on the grain, but for the most part they are all upwards of 2,000 calories for $1). I don't think anybody's in danger of starving if sugar is more expensive.