Yes – sugar taxes do help reduce consumption of junk food

Are junk-food taxes effective? Yes.

Experience from Hungary and Mexico show that these taxes do drive down consumption of sugar-rich food, especially among people who eat a lot of it.

But is it enough to combat the obesity epidemic? No. Healthy foods also need to become more available, and a possible solution is subsidizing differently. Stopping subsidies of corn, wheat and soy (crops used intensively in junk-food production) would likely have a big positive impact.

Vox: Mexico and Hungary tried junk food taxes — and they seem to be working