The practical effects are being felt today from a ban on sugary drinks in San Francisco even as libertarian groups continue to cast doubt on the thesis.
The San Francisco policy, the result of an executive order from Mayor Gavin Newsom, dictates vending machines on city property can no longer dispense Coke, Pepsi and other calorically sweetened beverages. Sports drinks and artificially sweetened water also are included in the ban.
Juices must be 100 percent fruits or vegetables with no added sweeteners.
Like others pushing bans or so-called "fat taxes," Newsom's goal is a thinner, healthier citizenry.
But is government the solution? Despite a soda-tax bill still pending in the Michigan Legislature, momentum seems weak, at best.
The debate has come a long way since many Grand Rapids-area school districts inked a 10-year contract with Coca-Cola in 1999 to sell the soda maker's products exclusively in school vending machines.
In exchange, Coke agreed to give the schools $30 per student each year. The cash went toward sports programs, teacher salaries and general operating expenses.
Back then, dentists were the only ones complaining.
By 2007, those Coke vending machines looked considerably different. Coke, Pepsico, the American Beverage Association and others agreed to eventually halt soda sales to public schools nationwide.
Coke moved big-time into milk products and vending machines for high school students were stocked with other Coke products: Minute Maid fruit juices, Nestea, Dasani water and Slammers flavored milk.
Beyond the vending machine ban, San Francisco's Newsom also wants to impose a retail fee on soda, part of a multifaceted approach to tackling obesity.
Still, the conservative newsletter/blog Human Events disputes the premise.
In a posting today, writers Patrick Basham and John Luik identify five key problems with soft drink taxes, saying scientific evidence is lacking, taxes don't work to curtail use, poor people tend to react by consuming even less healthy food, the taxes are economically unfair, and they are a threat to individual autonomy.
But Newsom's supporters counter with a UCLA study released last year that found adults who drink at least one soft drink a day are 27 percent more likely to be obese than those who don't.
Last week, a new report concluded that Michigan is the only state outside the South with one of the nation's highest obesity rates.
The study, by the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, found nearly 30 percent of Michigan adults are obese. That's an increase from 25 percent when the groups first issued the annual "F as in Fat" report in 2004.
Michigan tied with North Carolina for the 10th-highest percentage of obese adults.
E-mail Jeff Cranson: jcranson@grpress.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/jdcranson