Cost of a sugar hit

Lisa Holley was so addicted to Coca-Cola that when she gave it up her liver and kidneys went into shock.

The 23-year-old had gone from downing more than a litre a day to having nothing, and afterwards she had trouble eating for months, losing up to 20 kilograms.

But the cravings soon returned, and she started drinking it once again, unable to shake her addiction. "I feel lacksey-daisy until I have my morning Coke, and then I can find my bouncing bubbly self," Lisa said.

"One time I came home from work and hadn't had any all day to find somebody had drunk my Coke and it sent me into a full mental breakdown. I was balling my eyes out and screaming, I needed my Coke fix."

Lisa's Coca-Cola addiction goes back to when she started working at a bar when she was 18. She said she has been hooked ever since, save for the six-month break in 2013, when she suffered severe weight loss.

Shunning coffee and tea, she has her first Coca-Cola at 10am and it sometimes affects her sleep as she never goes to bed before midnight.

But Lisa wants to overcome her addiction, and is grateful her parents are always on her back about it.

"I would absolutely love that," she said.

"I'm so worried about my teeth.

"I don't think I could just do it on my own. I live on Coca-Cola and soft drink, I really do."

MPs not sold on new tax scheme

But Farrer MP Sussan Ley has slammed a proposed sugar levy as a tax on the poor, arguing emphasis should be placed on education to combat the Border's obesity epidemic.

The former Health Minister, speaking in one of her first interviews since resigning amid a travel expenses scandal last month, said if a so-called sugar tax was slapped on soft drinks it would hit poorer families hardest, with research showing they are more likely to drink unhealthy products.

Farrer MP Sussan Ley.

Melbourne-based think tank the Grattan Institute had called on the government to introduce a tax of 40 cents per 100 grams of sugar on all non-alcoholic, water-based drinks in a report released in November.

In other words, the tax would raise the price of a can of soft drink by around 15 cents and a two-litre bottle by about 80 cents.

But Ms Ley said this would be an onerous burden on families with less money. "If they still buy the soft drink, that's less money for them to spend on something nutritious for their families ... it doesn't take too much to see this, in some ways, as a tax on the poor, and that's what I don't like about it," she said.

"It appears to be a simple answer to a complex problem but I'm not convinced it would work, and I think we have to be much more multi-thronged in our approach to tackle obesity."

Government money should be put towards education programs explaining to people how unhealthy soft drinks are - akin to anti-smoking campaigns of the last two decades, Ms Ley said.

The debate in Australia comes as Britain decided it would introduce a sugar tax from 2018 that will be limited to soft drinks.

Ms Ley stopped short of saying Australia should throw out the idea altogether, and said the government ought to watch what happens in Britain.

Indi MP Cathy McGowan agreed that a focus on education programs exposing the dangers of sugar should take precedence, and said the last thing Australia's tax system needed was another add on.

"At the end of the day, there's definitely a role for government in changing peoples attitudes, but given a choice between an education program and a tax, I'd choose an education program," she said.

Indi MP Cathy McGowan

"For example, the 'Life. Be In It' program was hugely successful in changing peoples attitudes towards exercise."

Ms McGowan, who is a former president of lobby group Australian Women in Agriculture, said the government needed to take into account any unintended consequences of a new tax on Australia's sugar industry, which is largely based in Queensland.

Ms McGowan said it was not an issue of class.

Extent of sugar addiction revealed

Benalla and Wangaratta residents rank among the worst in Victoria when it comes to soft drink consumption, the latest Victorian Population Health Survey has shown.

The report found a startling one in five residents in both cities down a drink of soft drink every day.

Soft drinks are often sold in 600ml bottles, which means people are consuming up to 16 teaspoons of sugar in each large sugary drink they swallow. 

In response, the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating has recommended people should limit intake of soft drinks to "only sometimes and in small amounts".

But these warnings have not been heeded by many in the North East.

It found around one in nine Victorian adults - the equivalent of about 650,000 people - drink sugary drinks every day, and one in two Victorian adults are overweight or obese.

Wodonga fared slightly better, with only one in 10 people drinking soft drinks every day.

However, this has not improved the belt lines of residents.

The report found 56.3 per cent of Wodonga residents are overweight, putting them at greater risk of diabetes, stroke and heart disease.

It's not much better north of the Border, with 59.4 residents registering as overweight or obese in the Murrumbidgee Local Health District, which takes in Albury and much of the Riverina.

The authority's health promotion co-ordinator, Brendan Pearson, said people did not realise how much sugar was in soft drinks.

"One can of soft drink a day can lead to six-and-a-half kilos of weight gain in a year," he said.