Originally published February 21 2006
States have tried to improve public health with fat taxes
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
At Calorielab.com, Alan Mozes looks at the concept of fat taxes, which are meant to discourage consumers from eating fatty foods.
The idea of fighting the obesity epidemic with a tax on calorie-dense, nutritonally-empty food was first brought to public attention in a New York Times opinion article written by Kelly Brownell in 1994.
In an article on the HealthDay site today Alan Mozes surveys the impact that the proposal has had in the years since.
Dr. Brownell (pictured), a psychologist and a professor at the Yale Center for Eating and Weight Disorders and the author of Food Fight, proposed that soft drinks or foods high in fats or calories or low in nutrition be taxed, with the proceeds used to fund public health nutrition programs.
Since 1994 Arkansas, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington have implemented taxes on soft drinks.
California briefly implemented a fat tax that was ultimately repealed.
State fat taxes have generally not used the funds for nutrition or anti-obesity programs.
Of course, given a high enough tax, the tax alone could act as a disincentive to the consumption of junk food, and ultimately, government-designed nutrition programs have never been that effective.
On the other hand, an objective formula can produce counterintuitive results: the FSA's formula classified Special K, olive oil, milk, and fois gras as junk food.
Certainly none of these foods is good for you in excess, but in practice none of them is particularly overindulged in by the average person.
One approach, although politically unlikely, might be a simple flat per-calorie tax --- which would have the additional benefit of requiring the food and dining industry to measure and disclose accurate calorie information for all foods.
The bulk of U.S. government agricultural subsidies underwrite the production of hydrogenated soybean oil and high fructose corn syrup (not to mention tobacco) rather than going towards promoting fresh produce.
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