When New York City announced in September it will ban sugary beverages larger than 16 ounces in restaurants, sports arenas and other public venues, critics complained that the city has no right to meddle with individual food choices. Many public-health advocates, however, praised the move as an important step toward slowing the nation's decades-long rise in obesity rates. Sugar-sweetened drinks add an average 300 calories a day to teens' diets without providing any nutrition, they say. Some scientists even hypothesize that fructose, the main sweetener used in sodas, may trigger diseases such as Type 2 diabetes, which is also on the rise. Other nutrition experts, however, say sugar can't be the only or even the primary culprit in the nation's skyrocketing obesity rates, since they have doubled since 1980 while sugar in sodas and other packaged foods has increased by a much smaller percentage over that period.

Marcia Clemmitt is a veteran social-policy reporter who joined CQ Researcher after serving as editor in chief of Medicine and Health, a Washington-based industry newsletter, and staff writer for The Scientist. She has also been a high school math and physics teacher. She holds a bachelor's degree in arts and sciences from St. Johns College, Annapolis, and a masters degree in English from Georgetown University.