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**noteye** · **noteye** What Went Wrong User ID: 96618 05-16-2012 07:35 PM **Posts: 3,037**

It's a proposition some might find hard to swallow: a 20-percent tax on unhealthy food to improve the health of the nation.

Yet such a tax - spread across the food chain from manufacturer to consumer, coupled with changes in food policy to spur production of healthier food - is needed to reverse the pandemic of obesity and chronic diseases, researchers say.

Two articles published online today (May 15) in the British Medical Journal describe this course of action. These opinion pieces come one week before the 65th World Health Assembly, to convene on May 21 to 26 in Geneva, where diet-related diseases will be the primary topic.

Size of fat tax

One article, 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 countries are now using such "sin" taxes, which have curbed tobacco and alcohol use, to limit the consumption of unhealthy food, Mytton said. These taxes are based on the basic economic theory that, as the price of an item rises, the consumption of that item will fall.

But this theory isn't necessarily true with food, Mytton said. Just because the price of microwave-ready, deep-fried, gooey cheese sticks goes up doesn't mean the nation will switch to kale. People might continue eating deep-fried, gooey cheese sticks, because that's what they like to eat and that's all they know how to eat.

Mytton's group, however, found numerous cases in which a relatively high tax altered food consumption in a healthful way. One example comes from Denmark, where early assessment is showing that a new relatively high "fat tax" on oh-so-cherished saturated fat has prompted people to eat foods with a healthier fat profile. Another study comes from Boston, at the Brigham and Women's Hospital cafeteria, where a 35-percent increase in the price of sugary drinks led to a 26-percent reduction in consumption.

Analyzing such food tax schemes, Mytton's group eyeballed a 20-percent tax as the level at which changes on food consumption become noticeable.

Mytton is cognizant of unintended consequences of food taxes - for example, trading one evil for another, less sugar for more fat, or buying less healthy food for lack of money to buy any food. For this reason, he suggests introducing a sugary beverage tax, in which the alternative is usually drinking more tap water.

"A tax isn't going to fix obesity; it's not going to fix diet-related diseases," Mytton said. "There's no single solution. But it can have a role in moving people in the right direction" with their eating patterns. Mytton also would like to see subsidies for healthy foods, such as fruit and vegetables.

Full story... http://www.sott.net/articles/show/245523...ht-Obesity

**ana** · **ana** . User ID: 84929 05-16-2012 07:39 PM **Posts: 4,852**

i knew this was coming about 5 yrs ago!! when they said they were raising the tobacco tax because smoking was so bad for you i said hey what's next, a tax on foods that give people heart disease and make them obese??
like at the cash reg. there is a machine that scans food..lard=2$ tax, lol!

**noteye** · (This post was last modified: 05-16-2012 07:46 PM by noteye.)

KeLiy Wrote:

i knew this was coming about 5 yrs ago!! when they said they were raising the tobacco tax because smoking was so bad for you i said hey what's next, a tax on foods that give people heart disease and make them obese??
like at the cash reg. there is a machine that scans food..lard=2$ tax, lol!

They have a designated area for smoking, and now they will have to have a designated area for donuts.

**TFJ** lop guest User ID: 96766 05-16-2012 07:58 PM

Is this the BMJ again? they are always coming up with silly off the wall ideas.. some stick, most simply fade away as plain stupid.. one moment we should avoid eggs, the next eat as many as possible, same with bread etc, and it seems to me there is a pretty long list of U turns on what is and what is not healthy.. So I have to admit that I get a bit fed up with them at times (which is about 99.9% of the time)

In my opinion they are stupid bloody know it all hypocrites, in one of those moments when I was unemployed I took a job assisting pathologists here in the UK, quite a major hospital and while all those holier than thou doctors preached to their patients about the ills of sex, drink, drugs, smoking and no safe sex, they'd go off, have a smoke, get drunk and generally seemed stoned on something or other with shagging anything in sight (or nurses uniform)

Sorry for the rant, but.....................

**LoP Guest** lop guest User ID: 96757 05-16-2012 08:15 PM

How about they go after the source for a change?

Fine and tax any food processor that uses unhealthy ingredients and chemical preservatives. Throw a tax on them of 500% and fine them another 500% of their gross total income for each and every unit produced.

**ana** · **ana** . User ID: 84929 05-16-2012 08:16 PM **Posts: 4,852**

noteye Wrote:

KeLiy Wrote:
i knew this was coming about 5 yrs ago!! when they said they were raising the tobacco tax because smoking was so bad for you i said hey what's next, a tax on foods that give people heart disease and make them obese??
like at the cash reg. there is a machine that scans food..lard=2$ tax, lol!

They have a designated area for smoking, and now they will have to have a designated area for donuts.

lol, it's hard telling what them fools are gonna have!

**ana** · **ana** . User ID: 84929 05-16-2012 08:18 PM **Posts: 4,852**

TFJ Wrote:

Is this the BMJ again? they are always coming up with silly off the wall ideas.. some stick, most simply fade away as plain stupid.. one moment we should avoid eggs, the next eat as many as possible, same with bread etc, and it seems to me there is a pretty long list of U turns on what is and what is not healthy.. So I have to admit that I get a bit fed up with them at times (which is about 99.9% of the time)

In my opinion they are stupid bloody know it all hypocrites, in one of those moments when I was unemployed I took a job assisting pathologists here in the UK, quite a major hospital and while all those holier than thou doctors preached to their patients about the ills of sex, drink, drugs, smoking and no safe sex, they'd go off, have a smoke, get drunk and generally seemed stoned on something or other with shagging anything in sight (or nurses uniform)

Sorry for the rant, but.....................

that's the way it is man. bizarro world doomed

**Leopardsands - Goth Pug** lop guest User ID: 76478 05-16-2012 08:20 PM

A fat tax would be just disgusting for the whole of humanity.
I hope they don't pass such a thing.

I already feel bad when I look obese people riddled with cellulite from fatty fast food and misunderstanding that they dont know how to shop.

These are psychological problems they have.
We need to address them with some TLC (tender loving care).

**fattyz untited** lop guest User ID: 96808 05-16-2012 08:35 PM

:yeah:im going to eat you xxxxx

**LoP Guest** lop guest User ID: 96766 05-16-2012 08:37 PM

KeLiy Wrote:

TFJ Wrote:
Is this the BMJ again? they are always coming up with silly off the wall ideas.. some stick, most simply fade away as plain stupid.. one moment we should avoid eggs, the next eat as many as possible, same with bread etc, and it seems to me there is a pretty long list of U turns on what is and what is not healthy.. So I have to admit that I get a bit fed up with them at times (which is about 99.9% of the time)

In my opinion they are stupid bloody know it all hypocrites, in one of those moments when I was unemployed I took a job assisting pathologists here in the UK, quite a major hospital and while all those holier than thou doctors preached to their patients about the ills of sex, drink, drugs, smoking and no safe sex, they'd go off, have a smoke, get drunk and generally seemed stoned on something or other with shagging anything in sight (or nurses uniform)

Sorry for the rant, but.....................
that's the way it is man. bizarro world

Sorry, it was a poorly written rant, but I am glad you got the gist, and yes, it is a bizarro world 1dunno1

I wouldn't care so much if they lived as they preached but they don't, so it is hard to take their comments seriously.

**LoP Guest** lop guest User ID: 36055 05-16-2012 08:40 PM

LoP Guest Wrote:

How about they go after the source for a change?

Fine and tax any food processor that uses unhealthy ingredients and chemical preservatives. Throw a tax on them of 500% and fine them another 500% of their gross total income for each and every unit produced.

And who decides whats bad for us cause thats been a moving target for decades.

Side effect of the nanny state. I don't want them to take care of me and because they don't take care of me they have no sayso over how I live my life. They have no reason to control my behavior and thus their expences.

If you think its you they are worried about, think again.

Lewis Black on eggs and other things.

**seismic**

Pass it for all I care. I wouldn't be paying it based on my eating choices.

**LoP Guest** lop guest User ID: 96757 05-16-2012 08:46 PM

LoP Guest Wrote:

LoP Guest Wrote:
How about they go after the source for a change?

Fine and tax any food processor that uses unhealthy ingredients and chemical preservatives. Throw a tax on them of 500% and fine them another 500% of their gross total income for each and every unit produced.

And who decides whats bad for us cause thats been a moving target for decades.

Side effect of the nanny state. I don't want them to take care of me and because they don't take care of me they have no sayso over how I live my life. They have no reason to control my behavior and thus their expences.

If you think its you they are worried about, think again.

Lewis Black on eggs and other things.

How about all those lovely chemicals that the FDA claims is good for us. Aspartame, mercury, high fructose corn syrup and etc? Why do we need any of that in our foods? GMO corn and soy? What's wrong with natural corn and soy? Round Up ready GMO plants that don't produce as much or as healthy as the natural ones? Why do we need this in our diets?

You may as well just chew on a cardboard box for all the nutrition you get from the food now. At least you'll get some fiber in your diet.

**LoP Guest** lop guest User ID: 96788 05-16-2012 08:48 PM

You already know that this will pass in the uk, we are all so f*cking stupid lmfao.

Of course the sheeple will completely agree that this is what it is for, it is not just another way of raising revenue, how f*cking stoopid are we all?

If the government really wanted to stop this, they would ban the foods, like they do with fairly amorous gentlemen,booze, no you mean they dont? why ever not? i wonder?

**LoP Guest** lop guest User ID: 96788 05-16-2012 08:50 PM

wtf, line is meant to read "like they do with cigarettes" where the f*ck did fairly amorous gentlemen come from .f*ckin hell i think i have lost the plot or someone is playing with my words!.