Time for a Sugar Tax or VAT on some foods

ukcarper

cells wrote: »

Of course you will know if you are overweight but just trying to guage it by lookig in the mirror is a poor method

I usually weigh 69-70kg in the mornings. I moved house about 6 months ago and misplaced my scales so had stopped weighing myself. Anyway I felt I had put on some weight but its hard to tell visually so I bought another scale just two weeks ago and I had gone up to 73kg. Since then I've been watching what I eat more and doing some more exercise and im back down to 71kg and ill get it to 70kg.

so in my case it definitely works.
it isn't a diet its just knowing what weight is healthy and if the scales show more than that in the morning during the rest of the day you think concisely aboit your food choices

Anyway I am confident it would help millions in the UK lose and keep off weight and all it costs is a fiver for a digital scale. Analogue ones not as effective

You might be confident but that doesn't mean your right and I'm pretty sure in wouldn't help millions and could in fact make it worse for some.

CLAPTON

approach to diet, weight, exercise varies from person to person

what works for some doesn't work with others

what works for some-one with a generally good diet, does exercise regularly but is a little over weight is unlikely to work for some-one with an awful diet, never exercises and is hugely overweight

cells

ukcarper wrote: »

You might be confident but that doesn't mean your right and I'm pretty sure in wouldn't help millions and could in fact make it worse for some.

How would it make it worse?

It only needs to help a small percentage of the 65 million people to be worthwhile. Also I think it would be more of a help to stop people getting fat in the first place as opposed to help a 150kg man lose 50kg of weight.

also as I've mentioned before pretty much all the research shows that people who diet the only ones who keep it off are those who like myself constantly monitor their weight (whicj keeps their food and exercise in check)

ukcarper

cells wrote: »

How would it make it worse?

It only needs to help a small percentage of the 65 million people to be worthwhile. Also I think it would be more of a help to stop people getting fat in the first place as opposed to help a 150kg man lose 50kg of weight.

also as I've mentioned before pretty much all the research shows that people who diet the only ones who keep it off are those who like myself constantly monitor their weight (whicj keeps their food and exercise in check)

Most reputable diets recommend you only weigh yourself once a week because if you don't lose weight I initially many people give up. Most people who go on diets don't keep it of it needs a change of lifestyle diets by there nature don't work in the long term.

cells

CLAPTON wrote: »

approach to diet, weight, exercise varies from person to person

what works for some doesn't work with others

what works for some-one with a generally good diet, does exercise regularly but is a little over weight is unlikely to work for some-one with an awful diet, never exercises and is hugely overweight

Sure I suppose the most important thing is willpower and for me and I suspect a lot of others a scale will give them more willpower. For some it might do absolutely nothing but for me a simple five second measurement in the morning makes me exercise more and eat better than without that measurement.

ukcarper

CLAPTON wrote: »

approach to diet, weight, exercise varies from person to person

what works for some doesn't work with others

what works for some-one with a generally good diet, does exercise regularly but is a little over weight is unlikely to work for some-one with an awful diet, never exercises and is hugely overweight

Have to agree with you on this one there are plenty of reasons why people put on weight or aren't able to lose wait and I would say that people who are similarly overweight might need a different approach.

ukcarper

cells wrote: »

Sure I suppose the most important thing is willpower and for me and I suspect a lot of others a scale will give them more willpower. For some it might do absolutely nothing but for me a simple five second measurement in the morning makes me exercise more and eat better than without that measurement.

I'd guess you have never suffered from a weight problem.

zagubov

Apparently if you want people to think before they eat, you need to stick a mirror on their fridge door. I reckon a digital scales just in front of it would also do that job.

cells

ukcarper wrote: »

I'd guess you have never suffered from a weight problem.

Yes and no I've never been very fat but I have been overweight

I used to be about 80kg at my peak which was overweight according to BMI and the mirror. Post an inital diet to go from 80kg to 70kg I've managed to stay between 68-71kg for years only having put on some weight over the last 6 months when I stopped measuring with scales. This mornings reading was 71.5kg so will consciously eat better and exercise a little until that gets to 70kg

of course I appreciate its very hard to lose weight but I think digital scales will help greatly in stopping some people gettig to that stage in the first place

zagubov

chewmylegoff wrote: »

There is VAT on chocolate biscuits but you can still buy them for next to nothing. Making cheap processed rubbish 20% more expensive hasn't stopped people buying McDonalds.

If you really want to change behaviour you have to make the thing you're trying to stop unaffordable. If jam donuts cost £100 each because there was a £99.50 tax on them then no one would buy them. Making them cost 60p instead of 50p just means you got a bit more tax.

Of course given that it is possible to make donuts using sugar, flour and oil, you have to tax all of them £99.50 as well and pretty soon all you have left is lettuce. Lettuce is carcinogenic.

In the end, you cannot save stupid people from themselves. Investment fraud continues to prosper for the same reasons. No matter how much you tell people "if it sounds too good to be true it probably is" there will still be plenty of suckers prepared to hand over their life savings without doing any due diligence because some spiv promises them a 10% return.

I agree, it apparently contains the most mutagenic substance found to far. But all cooked foods are at least sllghtly carcinogenic due to the presence
of acrylamides etc.

And if we tried to live on uncooked foods we'd be dead within a year anyway. :eek:

We need to make junk food more expensive than caviar (other comparatively expensive foods are available) . :cool: