Nutrition in the News: The 'fat' tax
PIN IT!
Cartoon courtesy of Top News
I think this cartoon sums up our childhood obesity epidemic perfectly. Children are eating worse now than ever and sadly, some parents are feeding into the problem [literally and figuratively] due to low budgets, no time to cook and the ease of fast food. However, the epidemic that affects 1 out of every 3 children now is no longer being overlooked or forgotten. Thanks to Michelle Obama, the school lunch reform and now the proposed “fat” tax, America’s leaders are taking a hard stand against obesity and are focusing on those who need the help most, children. And they are taking drastic measures, such as proposing a tax on pizza, soda and other fatty foods.
63% of American adults are considered overweight or obese.
So what does this “fat tax” mean, really? It is a proposed 18% tax on soda and pizza that studies have shown could help Americans lose up to 5 additional pounds per year. The obesity epidemic costs the United States an estimated $147 billion dollars a year in health care costs. This cost and the stats could be what drove these policy makers and politicians to propose such a drastic tax. The real question that comes to mind is, could a tax really impact a person’s eating habits and prevent them from buying soda or pizza?
That question was answered, kind of, by a study done by Kiyah Duffey and her team of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill [as cited in Reuters]. The study involved the analysis of the diets of young adults and adults from 1985-2006. According to her results, a 10% increase in the cost of food was linked with a 7 percent drop in calories consumed from soda and a whopping 12% decrease in calories consumed by pizza. They took the new proposed tax, 18%, and plugged that in, getting the result that Americans would cut their intake by 56 calories a day, leading to an almost 5 pound weight loss in a year.
My thoughts on this tax are highly favorable. Studies have shown a link between a higher cost and less consumption with soda and pizza already, which is a trend that will certainly continue if a tax of 18% is placed on these foods. In our, still somewhat unstable, economy, a giant increase in cost of food will cause people to choose other options. I also see this only benefiting the school lunch debate. If this tax is passed, the schools who are buying soda for lunch rooms and vending machines will be faced with a higher cost, and with many school’s budgets already at an all time low, this could lead them to forgo serving soda at all. If these foods are not provided at schools, children have a much less chance of eating them overall. I think this tax could really help progress our efforts to reducing obesity nationwide by taxing the foods that are making us ‘fat.’
