"Fat-tax"
In the United States, overweight and obesity are increasing in both the
adult and children’s populations. According to results published from the
1999-2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES),
an estimated sixty-five percent of U.S. adults are overweight or obese,
while approximately sixteen percent of children and adolescents ages 6-19
are classified as overweight or obese.
Unfortunately, it is difficult to maintain or lose weight in our current
environment, because we live in a society which promotes overeating and
at the same time discourages physical activity. Additionally, we live in a
society filled with “all you can eat” buffets, and we spend hours sitting in a
car going to and from work, sitting in front of a computer, or watching
television, making it easy to have high caloric intake and at the same time,
decreased caloric expenditure.
We live in a country where the food industry produces nearly 150% of our
caloric need each day. This means that after everyone consumes their
daily quota of calories, there are still enough calories available to feed
another 50% of our population. We live in an environment of plenty, where
finding food or drink is as easy as walking into a convenience store,
Starbucks, or gas-station.
“Obesity is a socioeconomic issue, in that limitations of social and
economic resources are related to disparities in access to healthy foods.”--
Journal of Nutrition 2005.
“Grocery stores are unable to adequately house and store fresh fruits and
vegetables.” In fact, in these hard-to- reach, low-income, and possibly
unsafe areas, it costs the manufacturers and distributors more to bring
food in, making the cost of fresh fruits and vegetables higher than in more
affluent neighborhoods which are easier to reach, safer, have better and
cleaner grocery stores, with better storage capabilities, and have more
food choices available.
As it stands now, it costs less to purchase the foods of an unhealthy diet
than it does one that is rich in fruit and vegetables, fresh dairy products, soy
products, and fresh meats, fish, and meat alternatives, foods which do not
get much in the way of “air-time” on television or in propagating their
nutritional benefits.
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) and its co-sponsor, the Produce for
Better Health Foundation, have a one million dollar annual budget to
advertise the importance of eating “five a day” fresh fruits and vegetables.
Meanwhile, McDonald’s, Coke, Pepsi, Kraft, and other food industry giants
are able to spend tens of millions of dollars on advertising chips,
cookies, high-sugar cereals, and other snack-food items, including beer.
Despite the need, there are too few programs designed to promote healthy
diet and physical activity. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) only has
funds to spend about one million dollars annually on its media component
of its 5-A-Day campaign to encourage greater consumption of fruits and
vegetables.
In addition, it is the food industry which create these high-fat, high-sugar
foods, and create the market to attract consumers. In order to make it
worth their while to create these products, they must sell them. To do this,
they advertise the taste, cost, and novelty of a product, promoting its
consumption.
It is time to reverse these trends, tax foods which deliver too many calories,
too much fat, too much sugar, too much sodium, and too few
micronutrients, and in turn subsidize programs which promote the
consumption of healthy foods which are micronutrient dense, in their most
natural state, and which add to the health of the diet; not fight against it.
In trying to alleviate the nutrition problem of overeating and over-
consumption which lead to overweight and obesity, it is my goal to change
the environment in which we live. I want to go beyond lifestyle behaviors
and personal choice, because all too often, these factors are just not
strong enough to make a larger impact on society as a whole.
Overweight and obesity affect the whole country, and one way this occurs is
through the increased cost of health-care. In order to truly impact a nation-
wide change within the U.S., it will be necessary to change laws that govern
food cost, thereby changing the availability, accessibility, affordability,
and desirability of purchasing unhealthy foods.
For the health of our nation, it is prudent that the government be called to
action to make healthy fruits, vegetables, whole-grains, and lean meats
less expensive and easier to obtain, make fat-promoting foods more
expensive to obtain, and make it easier and more affordable to be
physically active. It is necessary that this action be taken sooner rather
than later.
One can argue: By placing a tax on certain food items, or certain food
types, we are intruding on an individuals’ right to choose which foods he or
she eats, or that we would be punishing individuals who do want to eat high-
fat foods. Yet, we tax cigarettes, liquor, and gasoline, and we limit the
selling of alcohol to individuals over age 21, so, I pose the question: Why
not impose a fat tax and classify certain foods as a health hazard, just like
we do with tobacco and cigarettes?
There is a tax on tobacco products because tobacco products have been
shown to increase health-care costs by increasing the incidence of lung
cancer and emphysema. Additionally, cigarettes are known to kill.
Granted, food is needed for sustenance, for life, while cigarettes are not.
However, food, if used improperly, also causes adverse health
consequences in the form of overweight and obesity and its associated
diseases, which may also lead to death.
It is naïve to think that personal responsibility is the only factor that must be
addressed in trying to reduce overweight and obesity. Personal
responsibility is so easily trampled on by the inexpensive cost and
convenience of unhealthy foods. Therefore, my policy proposal is to
increase the cost of unhealthy foods with taxation, making them appear
less desirable, taking the money raised from the taxes and redirecting that
back into food assistance programs, marketing of healthy foods,
advertisements and education for healthy-food initiatives, and fruit and
vegetable subsidies.
My goal in establishing the “fat tax” is as follows: The “fat tax” is a tax on
the product itself, not on the individual who chooses to consume that
product. The “fat tax” is not designed to target individuals who fit the
anthropometric, height and weight parameters for overweight or obese, as
that would be discriminatory.
Rather, the goal of the “fat tax” follows a similar conceptual framework as
that of the tobacco tax. It is a tool designed to deter the purchase and
use of health-damaging products.
It is time to demand change and active participation from our government
in health promotion, and the “fat tax” is one way of achieving that change.
