Time for a Sugar Tax or VAT on some foods

Nick_C

We will all die, but how we die is important.

My mother had a major stroke at the age of 88 which left her paralysed down one side, bedridden, and unable to communicate or do anything for herself. The last three years of her life were miserable.

Seeing her slowly die in this manner gave me the incentive to lose weight. I am no longer obese, and my BP and cholesterol have dropped to healthy levels.

(The diet that works for me is high protein (high fat) low carbs. I weigh myself daily and record the results in the Libra app on my android phone.)

wotsthat

I think the argument we all die so we needn't worry about how doesn't make sense.

The ideal is to lead long, productive and happy lives without having to suffer the modern diseases of wealth.

Followed by a short illness and peaceful death. I don't care if it's the same
heart attack, cancer or a stroke if I managed to delay it by twenty years by looking after myself (accepting that I'm improving my odds rather than expecting a guarantee).

I want to be like my grandmother - fit all her life then she wasn't and died at 90.

GeneHunt_2

antrobus wrote: »

Not necessarily.

In economic terms, if you can identify 'unhealthy foods' that contribute to something like obesity and impose costs on other people, then you have identified a negative externality. You can argue that those unhealthy foods are too cheap as they do not factor in these extra costs, and therefore it's perfectly rational to tax those foods, so that the extra costs are taken into account by consumers.

Taxing those foods will increase their price, which might lead to a decline in their consumption. Or it might not, it depends on the elasticity of demand for the foods concerned. But that does not really matter in economic terms, because the real point in taxing those foods is to ensure that the true cost of consumption is being borne by those who consume those foods, and not by anybody else.

Well said my man :T

wotsthat

antrobus wrote: »

In economic terms, if you can identify 'unhealthy foods' that contribute to something like obesity and impose costs on other people, then you have identified a negative externality. You can argue that those unhealthy foods are too cheap as they do not factor in these extra costs, and therefore it's perfectly rational to tax those foods, so that the extra costs are taken into account by consumers.

Taxing those foods will increase their price, which might lead to a decline in their consumption. Or it might not, it depends on the elasticity of demand for the foods concerned. But that does not really matter in economic terms, because the real point in taxing those foods is to ensure that the true cost of consumption is being borne by those who consume those foods, and not by anybody else.

The reality is we're talking about taxing certain foods to provide a disincentive to purchase rather than trying to make sure the price of the product reflects the full cost. That's because there's no real consensus about which foods are 'bad' and what the real cost of consumption is. I think there's sufficient evidence to argue that meat and dairy are harmful but they'll never be taxed because any tax will be assessed politically as well based on health risk.

If we wanted to go down that road an easier way would be to tax people based on their obesity level because there seems to be scientific consensus that an excess of food is harmful and risk factors are already known. It's impossible to know the real cost of a can of coke but we can take a stab at working out the costs of obesity.

GwylimT

setmefree2 wrote: »

If people didn't get fat they wouldn't get type 2 diabetes, and the NHS wouldn't need to treat anyone. Full Stop

Really.

I have type two diabetes as do my brothers, we were all diagnosed within six years, the youngest being 26 and the oldest 31. Have any of us ever been over weight? No. Have we had high sugar/carb diet? No. Infact myself and one of my brothers have coeliacs disease so our carb intake is exceptionally low.

I played football three times a week from the age of seven to my early twenties, I startes playing rugby in my early teens and I still do. Every week I run, swim and cycle, until recently I was cycling 40 miles five days a week and I had been doing that for years. I've ran marathons, done triathalons, also ironmans, i go the gym, admittedly I'm only going twice a week at the moment for an hour each time.

The highest my body fat has been since first measuring it properly is 14%, at the moment it is around 10%. Do I eat fruit? Not really, I occasionally eat avocados. I don't eat high sugar veg such as carrots. I do eat brown rice once or twice a week, no more than 100g cooked. I eat around 50g of humus per week in the warmer months. I don't eat yoghurts or ice cream, never have. I'm careful about my protein intake as this can cause high blood sugar.

Generali

Maybe sugar isn't the problem at all...

http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/278/1712/1626.short

A dramatic rise in obesity has occurred among humans within the last several decades. Little is known about whether similar increases in obesity have occurred in animals inhabiting human-influenced environments. We examined samples collectively consisting of over 20 000 animals from 24 populations (12 divided separately into males and females) of animals representing eight species living with or around humans in industrialized societies. In all populations, the estimated coefficient for the trend of body weight over time was positive (i.e. increasing). The probability of all trends being in the same direction by chance is 1.2 × 10−7. Surprisingly, we find that over the past several decades, average mid-life body weights have risen among primates and rodents living in research colonies, as well as among feral rodents and domestic dogs and cats. The consistency of these findings among animals living in varying environments, suggests the intriguing possibility that the aetiology of increasing body weight may involve several as-of-yet unidentified and/or poorly understood factors (e.g. viral pathogens, epigenetic factors). This finding may eventually enhance the discovery and fuller elucidation of other factors that have contributed to the recent rise in obesity rates.