By Stacey Patton

New York is getting fatter! And I’m troubled by it.

I often gripe about the day-to-day trivialities of navigating shopping aisles, buses, and subways where I feel like the world is closing in on me because so much horizontal excess keeps spilling into my personal space. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve found myself pinned up against a window or pole, or squished between bulging bellies, thighs and buttocks to the point where I’ve had to reluctantly give up my seat and stand.

I’m a thin person who exercises often and can fortunately afford to shop at places like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s for organic fruits, veggies and other alternatives to cheap unhealthy processed foods. I admit that I have my own standards about beauty and what I consider to be a healthy weight. And no, I don’t let Hollywood or the modeling industry set the standards for me. I don’t think everybody should be thin and I’m not a sizeist who believes that all fat people are lazy, ignorant, or bad. In fact, there are studies showing that thin-framed people also suffer from bad diet-related illnesses.

I understand there are a whole range of factors contributing to the soaring rates of obesity in this city and America writ large.

Some of it has to do with genetics, individual choices, education, income, food access, and even cultural attitudes about food and size. I’m often disturbed when I see women fill baby’s bottles with soda and sweet juices instead of milk or water. Each day on my way to work I pass schoolchildren clustered in front of bodegas clutching liter-sized bottles of soda and other mysterious fruity concoctions, bags of chips, and sticky cakes. They walk with their mouths and cheeks smeared with bright-colored crumbs. Their tongues and lips are purple, red, and sickly green and their jaws bulge out as they suck on hard squares and balls of candy.

The government plays a big role too.

It has allowed sugared beverages to be promoted in schools and failed to restrict the marketing of unhealthful foods to children. Our government also subsidizes foods like corn which helps makes producing sodas and other high fructose drinks inexpensive. On the whole, our nation’s food industry is economically engineered so that many Americans cannot afford to purchase products that are good for their bodies.

And now, there’s a lot of angry New Yorkers claiming that the state government is playing nanny by making it more expensive to consume drinks that make people fat and sick.

Despite passionate campaigning by New York Governor David Paterson, State Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a proposed tax on sugary drinks might not pass the state Senate.

The latest news from Forbes.com indicates that the entire Republican conference and a significant number of Democratic senators are opposed to the tax. With the 31-30 Democrat-Republican split, the measure isn’t expected to draw the minimum 32 votes needed for passage. This is bad news, given the obvious health benefits that such a measure could produce for a city suffering from alarming rates of obesity and diet-related illnesses – especially among the financially strapped, people of color, and children.

The most recent data from the New York State Department of Health shows that nearly 60 percent of adults and 40 percent of children in the state are either overweight or obese. Instances are more prevalent among African Americans (66 percent) than whites (61 percent) and is highest among people living in low-income neighborhoods with limited access to exercise facilities and food amenities. The prevalence of diabetes among New Yorkers has also skyrocketed by 50 percent since 1993.

“This is the epidemic of our time,” said Commissioner Farley. He has also said that the sugar tax is clearly the best way to combat this major health crisis. “It’s not going to totally solve it, but it can make a major dent in the epidemic.”

Supporters have argued that the sugar tax would generate a projected $1 billion annually for healthcare programs and encourage New Yorkers to cut out sugary soda and fruit drinks that are major contributors to obesity.

In opposition, such groups as New Yorkers Against Unfair Taxes argue that the proposed tax is just a way for Albany to control resident’s lifestyles by policing what they eat and drink. In addition, they say taxing hardworking citizens to balance the state budget is not the right answer, especially not in the midst of economic peril.

Grocery chains with powerful lobby reach and big soft drink companies are nervous. Television commercials keep blitzing the airwaves. Some warn that taxes and bureaucracy are running amok. Other graphic depictions include young people drinking glasses of fat and pot bellies juxtaposed against stacks of soda cans. Earlier this month Governor Paterson met with a dozen workers from Coco-Cola and PepsiCo in White Plains to hear their concerns. The makers of soft drinks claim that the sugar tax will result in job losses and that the tax disproportionately targets middle and low income people.

Since when did these huge corporations start caring about struggling people? These industries claim they are standing up for hardworking businesses, individuals and families.

Of course, these low nutrition, sugary drinks are backed by powerful marketing and can be habit forming products that are deceptively low-priced because their producers do not have responsibility for paying the added costs associated with their use – dental problems, diabetes, obesity, etc. Those costs are borne by the consumers and taxpayers who share the burden of paying high healthcare costs.

Makani Themba-Nixon, Executive Director of the Praxis Group, a D.C.-based community organization that advocates for health equity and justice, says that producers of sugary drinks can choose not to pass on the tax but they almost never do. “Yet, they use sympathy for the poor to deflect attention from the fact that they should shoulder more of their share of these social costs. Truth be told, if they cared so much about poor people’s spending power, they could opt to pay it and not to pass on the tax at all.”

I think the tax needs to go further than just on drinks. Raise taxes on McDonalds and other fast food chains, the hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurants on just about every block in low-income neighborhoods. But don’t stop there. While making bad foods and drinks expensive, the price of the healthy stuff needs to be more affordable. I bet that more people will choose healthier foods if they are less expensive.

The Obama Administration just passed landmark health reform bill but it will do little good if the food industry is not reformed.

Themba-Nixon sees potential in the measure. “These taxes, especially if they are dedicated to funding healthy infrastructure in communities most affected can have the double positive of getting more people to choose healthier foods due to the cost factor and generating much needed revenues to help rebuild our communities so that they are healthier.”

Stacey Patton is the Senior Editor of The Defenders Online.