Sugar is a terrible thing in the quantities Americans consume it in. We consume 10x as much sugar daily than we did 100 years ago and 500x the sugar daily that humans were intended to. Obesity rates are so high because they put sugar in everything now. Go to the store and look for products that you wouldn't think would have sugar, like ketchup or pizza, even frozen burgers. Sugar? YEP! Impossible to avoid it. All this added sugar we are consuming daily, ON TOP of an item that is actually supposed to be sugary like your nightly bowl of ice cream - no wonder why obesity rates and diabetes are so high! Ugh, diabetes. It's pretty scary but scientests are saying that the current generation age 1-15 yrs old have a 75% chance of becoming diabetic by the time they are middle aged. Within 30 years scientists are predicting 80% of the US population will be diabetic. That's scary! No one cares though. Keep watching American idol. My step son's girlfriend is 16 years old, thin as a toothpick and has diabetes. What's wrong with that picture? Hits close to home.
Nature intended sugar to be hard to get. Honey has bees protecting it that will sting you if you tried to get at it. Sugar cane, hard as bamboo, hard for early humans to get to it before modern tools were invented. NATURE KNEW that sugar should only have been consumed in small quantities.
Why do they put sugar in everything? Two reasons, it makes the food taste better (meaning you will buy it again) and it is also addicting! It's all about the $$$ for the food companies. High fructose corn syrup! Scary words. That stuff is bad for you! Guess what - no, it's not any worse than regular sugar. Molecularly, it's the same as natural cane sugar. No difference at all. The reason high fructose corn syrup is bad is because it's so cheap, which is why they put it in everything! Before it's invention, raw sugar was too expensive for them to add it to all food without signficantly raising costs. Now they can add it to their hearts contents for less than pennies on the dollar. Go to your local grocery store and see. I can buy a 16oz bottle of high fructose corn syrup for $3.00 or pay $12.00 for a 16oz bag of natural cane sugar. The food companies get it even cheaper since they produce it. It's in all American food because we are the corn capital of the world. Look at other countries that don't have corn, they are never obese.
Uhh, how did I get on this rant? Sorry. Back to soda. I don't support a ban on anything. But I think they should use their money to instead support a campaign telling you the evils of soda and sugar. Soda is the worst. Drink more than a glass a week of it some day I bet you WILL have diabetes. It's
LOADED with sugar. It's pretty much liquid sugar. Why? Because soda is so bitter if they didn't load it with 40+ grams of sugar per serving (more sugar than 5 glazed donuts) no one would drink it.
Seriously, if you have obesity problems just cut sugar from your diet I guarantee you will lose 10lbs of pure fat a month easy with no exercise. Too bad no one is aware of this one easy tip when it comes to weight loss. It's hard to cut sugar from your diet since they put it in everything now. Stick to fresh vegetables and family-farm raised fresh meat. The vegetarian's have it some what right, but not because of the reason they think. The reason vegetarian diets work is because of the reduced amount of sugar in veggies, not because they are veggies. You can eat meat too as long as it's fresh and has no sugar in it and still lose the same amount of weight. Heck, when i was on my no-sugar weight loss campaign I made it a goal to eat at least 3 steaks a week high in fat.

Weightloss went even faster because fatty products keep you fuller longer.