1) Taxing high-fat foods would be a way to reduce heart disease?

– I do not agree with this

statement.
2) Taxing high-fat foods would be a way to offset the treatment of heart disease related illness? – I
do not agree with this statement.
3) Taxing high-fat foods could be used for public education. – I agree with this statement.

About 34% or more of Americans are obese, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. The goal of the tax of high-fat foods is to curb sales of unhealthy food and decrease
overconsumption, which may help to prevent diseases like hypertension or diabetes (1). “One U.S. study
reviewed by Mytton and his colleagues found a 35% tax on sugar-sweetened drinks — $0.45 per drink —
led to a 26% decline in sales. Based on their analysis of modeling studies, they concluded a 20% tax on
sugary drinks in the U.S. would reduce obesity levels by 3.5% — from 33.5% to 30% among adults. A
similar tax in the U.K. could cut up to 2,700 heart disease deaths a year” (2). It does seem like a good
idea, but what people aren’t realizing is that these foods aren’t the only factor in heart related issues.
Exercise plays a big part too, and it’s the person’s choice whether to do this or not. So even if the food
culprit was to be taxed or not, the issue will most likely remain. “Exercise burns calories. The more you
exercise, the easier it is to keep your weight under control. But remember that exercise is not a free pass
to eat everything in sight! To burn 100 calories, most people need to walk or run about one mile (3).”
Bad habits like not exercising or choosing to eat large amounts of unhealthy food is completely up to the
person, so taxing may not even work. The only thing these taxes may end up doing is cause issues for
low income families that just want a snack every now and then. Besides, it is shown that over the years
the price of healthy foods have gone up while unhealthy prices drop, so the prices themselves are
encouraging bad habits to begin with. Instead of taxing, researchers suggest that there should be public
health campaigns that focus on the reasons for poor dietary choices as opposed to making a marginal
change in the diets of everyone (4).

If they wanted to educate people, their first step would have to be decreasing the prices of healthy food.
Once a tax of high-fat foods would be put in place, I’ll admit it may drive people to make slight changes
in their habits simply to save money. Food industries appear incapable of marketing healthier foods.
Their mission is not public health but profit, so they’ll continue to sell the health-damaging food that’s
most profitable, until the market or another force skews things otherwise (5). If the taxes are placed on
these high-fat foods, the profit margin for these industries may shift, leading to more healthy foods
being produced. People do need to be educated to eat a bit more of these healthy foods and only enjoy
the unhealthy stuff in moderation. If not, the only outcome will be a lot of upset people still buying the
unhealthy foods regardless of the taxes and losing money while increasing obesity rates. All in all, I do
think it’ll take more than just a tax to fix these issues, but it might educate people to change their habits
a bit.

Works Cited:

1. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/fat-tax-lower-obesity/story?id=16353067
2. http://healthland.time.com/2012/05/16/study-a-20-fat-tax-would-improve-public-health/
3. http://www.acsm.org/access-public-information/articles/2012/01/19/obesity-and-exercise
4. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-obesity-fat-tax.html
5. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/opinion/sunday/24bittman.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0