San Francisco just took a major step against Big Sugar

A major US city just fired a big gun in the fight against sugar - which scientists believe is likely one of the most deadly ingredients in the modern human diet.

Voters in San Francisco, California on Tuesday passed a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages, according to unofficial results. The measure is part of push by local governments to target soda to stem obesity and diabetes, two leading causes of early death in America.

Neighboring Albany, California also passed a similar measure, preliminary figures showed, and measures in Oakland, California and Boulder, Colorado, are on track to pass as well, with votes still being counted early on Wednesday.

The levies on sugar-sweetened beverages arrive a month after the World Health Organization recommended that governments introduce these types of taxes in a bid to battle obesity, diabetes and other diet-related diseases.

The San Francisco measure passed 62% to 38% and the Albany measure passed 71% to 29%. With 85% of precincts reporting, the Oakland measure had 62% support to 38% opposed, and in Boulder the soda tax was passing 54% to 46%, with the percent of votes counted unclear.

Efforts to fight sugar consumption by making it harder to sell soda have enjoyed mixed successes in this country. In 2014, former New York City mayor and billionaire Mike Bloomberg's rule to limit the size of sugary drink containers failed in court. But Philadelphia, in an effort partly funded by Bloomberg, passed a tax in June that now looks like a bellwether.

Mexico passed one-peso soda tax in 2014 (again, in part with Bloomberg's help) that seems to have had some early success as a public health measure, though it's still too early to call.

Coca-Cola Co, PepsiCo Inc., and other companies in the roughly $100-billion US soft drink industry are fighting the taxes at a time when soda consumption is falling.

The sugar industry has a history of opposing these kinds of public health efforts. Industry groups funded an effort to deceive the American public on the dangers of sugar - while over-hyping the supposed dangers of fat - that is responsible for one of the biggest misconceptions in nutrition: that fat alone makes you fat.