Taxes can be redirected to the poor or even used to subsidize other food choices. The point is people and companies would make different choices if empty calories where relatively more expensive.

The same is true of carbon taxes, they don’t extract money from the economy they move it around within the same economy.

Sure, though in my experience that rarely really happen. Here's another angle: it creates a kind of social stratification where only the wealthier can afford to eat certain popular foods. I grew up poor, it's very humiliating to not be able to eat the same things as your peers.

Sugar is not an essential food.