BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- The average American drinks about 50 gallons of soda and other sweetened beverages each year.

Sports drinks, regular sodas and fruit punch all have as many as 200 calories per serving which health experts say contributes directly to the nation's obesity problem. And the health issues don't stop there.

A new analysis from the University of California, San Francisco has found that excess consumption of soft drinks led to 130,000 cases of diabetes and 14,000 cases of heart disease between 1990 and 2000.

Some health policy officials -- including Centers for Disease Control Director Thomas Friedan -- favor a tax on all soft drinks of 1 cent per ounce.

Studies have suggested the tax might cut soda consumption by 10 percent -- as tobacco taxes have reduced smoking rates.

But the American Beverage Association has protested such proposals, arguing that a soft drink tax would place an unfair burden on consumers that may not result in any meaningful reduction in calories across people's total diet.