Childhood obesity in the Bronx is a crisis. There are many reasons for this including a general lack of physical activity and access to nutritious food.

But one reason no one can argue with is that kids consume too much sugar, and the biggest source of that sugar is soda.

Governor Paterson proposes taxing soda and other sugary drinks, and health officials estimate this will get 10 percent of the population to drink a lot less of the stuff. That means 150,000 fewer obese people in the city.

Why wouldn’t we do this? Opponents say it will accelerate our descent into a “nanny state,” where government tells us everything we can and can’t do.

Government has a legitimate role in health care issues because it pays for so much of it. Government at its best  also protects those most vulnerable —  like kids who have no idea that drinking a big bottle’s worth of soda a day adds about 25 pounds a year to their weight.

We strap on our seatbelts every day because of laws enacted by government. We don’t smoke on airplanes and in offices for the same reason.

The soda tax doesn’t even outlaw sugary drinks. It just says that if you want to engage in an extremely unhealthy activity, you’re going to pay a little more for it in the hope that it discourages you from drinking something with negative nutritional value and that it keeps you out of hospitals and emergency rooms. An added benefit to the tax is that the revenue will support health care in the state.

We’re glad Montefiore Medical Center (Norwood News is published by an affiliate of Montefiore), city health officials and 1199, the health care workers’ union, have taken such a strong stand on this (see cover article).

We hope state legislators can look past the beverage industry lobby, which heavily contributes to many of their campaigns, and do the right thing.