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It ’s a proposition some might find hard to get down : a 20 - percentage tax on unhealthy food to ameliorate the health of the Carry Nation .
Yet such a tax — distribute across the food chain from manufacturer to consumer , coupled withchanges in solid food policyto spur production of healthier food for thought — is needed to reverse thepandemic of obesityand inveterate diseases , researchers say .
If unhealthy foods packed with saturated fats were more expensive than healthy alternatives which would you choose?
Two articles publish online today ( May 15 ) in the British Medical Journal describe this course of action . These opinion pieces descend one week before the sixty-fifth World Health Assembly , to convene on May 21 to 26 in Geneva , where dieting - concern diseases will be the chief topic .
size of it of fat tax
One clause , led by Oliver Mytton of Oxford University ’s Department of Public Health , looked at tax schemes worldwide to see what has worked , however marginally . Many country are now using such " sin " taxes , which have curbed tobacco and alcohol use , to limit the consumption of unhealthful food , Mytton sound out . These taxation are based on the basic economic hypothesis that , as the price of an item rises , the consumption of that token will diminish . [ 7 Diet Tricks That Really Work ]
But this theory is n’t necessarily true with food , Mytton said . Just because the cost of microwave oven - ready , late - fried , gooey cheeseflower sticks goes up does n’t stand for the Carry Nation will switch to kale . the great unwashed might continue eating late - fry , gooey cheeseflower stick , because that ’s what they care to eat and that ’s all they have it off how to eat up .
Mytton ’s group , however , find numerous cases in which a comparatively high tax altered food consumption in a healthful way . One object lesson come from Denmark , where former assessment is showing that a newfangled relatively high " fat tax " on oh - so - cherished saturated fat has prompted the great unwashed to run through foods with a healthier fat profile . Another bailiwick come from Boston , at the Brigham and Women ’s Hospital cafeteria , where a 35 - percent increase inthe cost of sugary drinksled to a 26 - per centum reduction in economic consumption .
Analyzing suchfood tax schemes , Mytton ’s group eyeballed a 20 - percentage tax as the level at which changes on food for thought consumption become noticeable .
Mytton is cognisant of unintended outcome of food taxes — for example , trading one evil for another , less sugar for more fat , or buying lesshealthyfood for lack of money to buyanyfood . For this reason , he suggest introducing a sugary beverage tax , in which the option is commonly drinking more tap H2O .
" A tax is n’t going to fix obesity ; it ’s not going to set diet - related disease , " Mytton said . " There ’s no undivided result . But it can have a role in moving people in the right counsel " with their feed pattern . Mytton also would like to see subsidies for healthy foods , such as yield and veggie .
Food policy and marketing
A second article , by Corinna Hawkes of the Centre for Food Policy at City University , London , calls for all-embracing alteration in food policy and marketing . This opinion opus complements a scientific paper Hawkes and her colleagues published last calendar month in the journal Food Policy , which primarily targets the nutrient industry as the good place to fightdiet - related diseases .
Hawkes argues that changes in food production — for example , less sugar , saltiness and trans - fats , used now because they are inexpensive alternatives for healthy ingredients — could dramatically lower the relative incidence of obesity and core disease with minimum effect on consumers ' purse .
In essence , she is call for a reversal of the changes in the food supply organisation that , in recent decennium , have " coincided with rises in obesity and non - communicable diseases , " she said . During this flow , tumid solid food processors and retailer have wielded outstanding control over food product through tightly verify supplying chain . Through better price ascendency and modern selling , these company have created a consumer demand for tawdry but unhealthy food for thought , largely in the phase ofeasy - to - prepare processed foodsand drinks .
Strategies similar to what break into the creation of inexpensive , unhealthy nutrient — cheap corn sirup as sweetening , or tawdry soy and corn to fatten cows — could work to make the industriousness receive direction to utilize healthier constituent and healthier fabrication practices , Hawkes said .
And then there ’s selling : " solid food marketing to youngster simply must be stop , " read Hawkes " It ’s ludicrous that it exists at all . " [ 10 Ways to Promote Kids ' Healthy Eating ]
Patrick Basham of the Cato Institute , a libertarian think cooler , is one of many who have debate that kale and fat taxis are misguided , because they do little to change consumer - purchasing habit . In a March 30 clause in U.S. News & World Report , Basham say thatsoda taxeswould call for to be 100 percentage just to see a 10 - percentage drop curtain in consumption , on average across the entire population .
Also , given the poor economic system , regime might be less willing to bring in taxes or change in the food supply if they have a minus impact on jobs .
Mytton , who describes himself as pragmatic , said that governments actually might see food taxes as a path to generate revenue while reducing health costs . He points to country such as Mexico , where diabetes now is the leading killer , something entirely the result of a poor diet and which is auspicate to ruin the land ’s wellness system by the end of the tenner .
Christopher Wanjek is the author of the books " Bad Medicine " and " Food At body of work . " His chromatography column , Bad Medicine , appears regularly on LiveScience .
