The World Health Organization is backing a controversial remedy to reverse the global rise in obesity and Type 2 diabetes — a 20 percent to 50 percent soda tax.

The recommended tax should not be limited to soda, the WHO said on Tuesday. It should apply to all sugar-sweetened beverages, a category that includes sports drinks, energy drinks, fruit punch, sweetened iced tea, vitamin waters and lemonade.

“If governments tax products like sugary drinks, they can reduce suffering and save lives,” Douglas Bettcher, director of the WHO’s Department for the Prevention of Noncommunicable Diseases, said in a statement.

The World Health Organization, the public health agency of the United Nations, said the reasons to act were clear. More than half a billion of the world’s adults are now obese, including 11 percent of men and 15 percent of women. Those rates are more than double what they were in 1980. In the United States, 34 percent of men and 38 percent of women are obese, which is defined as having a body mass index of 30 or above.

People who are obese have an increased risk of heart disease, the leading cause of death in the U.S. They also are more likely to develop certain types of cancer, including breast cancer, colorectal cancer, renal cell cancer, esophageal adenocarcinoma, endometrial cancer, gallbladder cancer and thyroid cancer. The risk of stroke and Type 2 diabetes also rises with BMI.

The WHO cited the steady rise of diabetes as a primary reason for a sugary drink tax. Worldwide, an estimated 442 million people live with the chronic disease, which caused 1.5 million deaths in 2012. More than 76,488 Americans died of diabetes in 2014.

In a report released on Tuesday, WHO officials say that consumption of added sugar is the root of these ills. This includes not just table sugar but the honey, syrups and fruit juice concentrates that find their way into processed foods.

“Nutritionally, people don’t need any sugar in their diet,” Francesco Branca, director of the WHO’s Department of Nutrition for Health and Development, said in the statement.