As part of the major health care system overhaul President Obama is proposing a federal tax of soft drinks and other junk foods.
Supporters argue that this tax would have multiple benefits and help fund the health care reform. They also argue and and increase in the price of these sugared beverages and junk food would cause a decrease in overall consumption.
This could potentially relieve some of the burden on taxpayers for medical costs incurred by overweight and obese individuals.
A recent article from the New England Journal of Medicine reports that for each extra can of sugared beverage consumed per day that the likelihood of a child becoming obese increases by 60%.
We all know from my previous posts and the Fighting Fat For America TV show how much is spent each year on medical costs.
The American Beverage Association’s Susan Neely states that "taxes are not going to teach our children a healthy lifestyle".
What do you think of a federal tax increase on sugary beverages and food? Would you support it?
I am in favor of this if it helps discourage consumption.
What do you think? Leave your comments and thoughts below.
Yours in good health,
Jayson Hunter RD, CSCS
America’s Trusted Weight Loss Expert
Loading ...
I think it’s a great idea, maybe people will start to think about buying that can of soda and what it does to your body. I also think fast food places should have to post a warning sign that says, eating this food can be hazardous to your health.
I say bring it on. I do not drink sugary beverages, so it would not affect me. My father-in-law complains of office personnel constantly breaking his chairs by being overweight. So yeah, maybe an increase in price would lower the incentive to buy this stuff.
I don’t really think the increase in tax/cost of junk food will reduce the consumption of it. To put it bluntly junk food is some peoples drug of choice. They enjoy the feelings they get when they consume the product. Look at how many times they have raised the price on cigarettes but people still smoke. If someone wants something bad enough it don’t matter what the cost is they are going to buy it anyway. So I say go ahead raise the tax and let’s put the money towards something worthwhile like health care.
I’m not in favor of any new taxes. It wouldn’t do any good. People who want that stuff will get it anyway just as people who want to smoke are still buying cigarettes even after the last tax hike.
Ithink it’s about time. It may also help ease our health care problem when people start paying attention to what they’re putting in their bodies. Regardless of the reason
I have no doubt Obama is least interested in the health of the American people. The sugar, carbon CO2 (???) tax discussions are desperate efforts to pay for social engineering programs. If the FDA would do its job and cut fillers like excess fat (in EVERY forzen product it seems) and high fructose corn ssyrop from the shelves or get high density crop foods mandated the health problem would be alot better served. Too many lobbyists serving political prostitutes will stop this effort. The entire food and water system (yes chlorines) are contaminated and responsible for the massive major health problems like cancer.
Absolutely in favor of higher taxes for that junk. What it all comes down to is an increase of awareness. The damage that the FDA and other self serving groups perpetuate is an embarassment to the general public. There are many other changes that need to be made for the cause (high fructose corn syrup!), but at least its a start.
People need to take responsibility for what they consume and a higher tax may assist them in making better choices.
Yes We Can!
I don’t like it one bit. Another instance of “Big Brother” trying to control our lives. It’s up to us, the individual, to make the right choices. The second you let big brother get a toe in the door of your life…it’s over.
I think it’s a great idea. It shouldn’t be cheaper to eat junk than to eat healthy, whole, fresh food. It just doesn’t make sense. All in the name of bug business and the almighty dollar. HFCS didn’t enter the food industry until the 70s and that’s when the obesity problem began. Long gone are the days of eating seasonally from what was fresh at the market. The rest of the world laughs as our nation continues to grow in size and complacency.
When I used to struggle financially, I recall that, the reason I did not buy healthy food, is because it was so much more expensive. It is well-known that the poor buy unhealthy foods because those foods are much less expensive. The poor, already, cannot afford healthy foods. Are we now to take away also the only foods they can afford? It is the children you hurt here. Their parents will be able to feed the children nothing more than bread and pasta. I do not think that we are considering everyone here. It is not a good idea. If they are to increase the cheap foods, then let them decrease healthy food costs. It is true that some poor are obese, but surely more of the poor are nothing but skin and bones, especially the children of the poor. They should not be devastated further.
I don’t think the government should have any say in what I choose to eat or drink. Taxing these things wouldn’t make any difference with the obesity in America, people will eat/drink what they want. People should be educated in what all the sugar, etc. does to the body, then they should decide for themselves if they will continue to take it in.
It wont matter if they jack up the prices on sugary beverages. People have become accustomed to drinking this stuff they will continue regardless of what the price is. All it does is give government more tax money to spend. I also believe it will not change the amount of overweight people to any decernable degree. Remember caloric consumption is only part of the equation when it comes to fat loss. This country has gotten so automated that a human body barely has to function to get through the day if that person chooses the easy route. When I was in tokyo earlier this year I noticed one very important thing. Not only were most of the people slim but there were zero mobility aids dragging their fat butt around everywhere and out to their car parked right in front of the doughnut store. If they want to help the overweight problem then they need to figure out how to get people off the couch and exercising as well!
Absolutely they should be taxed to help pay for health care, even though I agree it won’t cut consumption. Obesity is fast becoming the number one underlying cause of just about every health problem a person can get. I’m a medical transcriptionist and of all the reports I’ve seen, I can almost guarantee that if there’s anyone under the age of 70 with serious health problems (outside of car accidents) it’s due to smoking, drugs, alcohol, obesity, or a combination of the four. In fact, I’d say under the age of 80. It’s just unfortunate that those who choose to continually and habitually poison their bodies will find ways to do so regardless of cost and regardless of if they have children who suffer for it.
As for fast food, yes, a lot of it is unhealthy, but most places have healthy choices if a person just makes them. Just because you eat at McD’s doesn’t mean you have to have a double quarter pounder, supersize fries and coke every time. Stop blaming the market, start calling people on their personal choices. The market only caters to what people want. How come everyone is quick to jump on fast food but doesn’t say anything about the donuts at the grocery store?
At most fast food restaurants, there is a beverage bar where you fill your drink cup and can return for essentially unlimited refills. You have a choice of high calorie or no calorie soft drinks. Exactly how would this tax system work to only tax the high calorie soft drinks in this situation as the consumer can draw from any of the choices available?
See…they NEVER think these things through.
Taxing foods will not change the reason why people overconsume. But if you want to tax something, how about taxing the individual. Yes…a fat tax. You weigh-in and cha-ching! Now that’s really holding the individual personally responsible.
I think the tax on junk food is a great idea!! But I think in order for it to be effective the government also needs to give incentives to the companies making healthy foods to lower their costs so people will look to the healthier stuff and not the junk. If both of those things could happen I think it would be a major success!!
Another tax on the working poor in this country, just like the tobacco tax increases. We engineer the system so corn growers can sell product cheaper than it costs to produce it, and wonder why HFCS is so prevalent – duh! The “government” allows misleading labels and dubious claims from the food manufacturers with the deep pockets, but supplement companies are put through the wringer no matter how good they are. This is nothing more than another money grab – if it’s so bad, shouldn’t we just ban tobacco and sugar? Why can’t we do that? Infringing on liberties? Taxing people until they are bled dry isn’t? I don’t drink the stuff either, but to me that is irrelevant.
Personally I don’t partake of “Junk Food or Sugared Beverages”. However everyone has a right to choose their life style and what they put in their body’s. The government has done this with cigarettes, it doesn’t stop smokers from smoking. It won’t discourage people from drugging themselves with sugar and the garbage some people pass off as food. They’ll make a bundle on this bill if it passes. But will the money be put toward their so called health care system?
It is a horrible idea. It is none of the government’s business what we eat, and what happens when they find that the taxes actually have discouraged consumption? This stupid tax will generate less money. Then they will say that they have to make up the difference by raising taxes on something else. Have you all not noticed that government never has to make do with less? When we have less money, we spend less. When government has less money, they spend more, claim a crisis, and tell us they have to raise even more taxes on us to make up the difference!! Think very carefully before you agree with something like this.
Taxes won’t do any good to reduce soda consumption. I’ve never heard someone say they quit smoking because cigarettes were getting too expensive. I’ve never even heard a smoker say he/she is smoking less because of any tax increase.
Undoublty this would be a big income source for the health system, but for what? Is this like cigarettes taxes to pay cancer treatment for smokers? Unless taxes increase the price of a product about 10 fold of what it is costing before the tax change, it won’t do any difference.
If you want to decrease soda consumption, start by taking the same steps as for cigarrettes. In my country since about 2 years I think, any cigarette advertisment and even the box has a 50% of its area covered with health warning pictures and text. Pictures like yellow rotting theeths and warning lables as “this cigarrettes are killing you” are 50% of the box. Seeing that every time you buy or pull a cigarette is far more dissuading than the tax. I do know people that have stopped smoking because of it.
But it seems taxes and tax increases are the politically correct way of reducing consumption of harmful substances without affecting your right (your ‘liberty’) to purchase them. You cannot put a ban on it, but you can dissuade people by making it far more expensive to get. And still, people who have the money and can afford it won’t mind.
After they raised the price of cigarettes to “pay for healthcare” I figured in order to justify their act, they would have to start raising taxes on other unhealthy products like alcohol, junk food, etc. But they are still just picking certain unhealthy items and not all, which is hypocritical. If they are going to tax unhealthy products, they would have to tax all processed foods, all meat, poultry, milk, eggs, etc. that comes from animals that are given any type of hormone, produce that is grown using pesticides. So everything but whole and organic foods would be taxable. Taxing unhealthy foods will not stop people from buying them and will just lead to more and more taxing. Every time something is deemed unhealthy, there would have to be a new tax. So, I do not agree with adding any more taxes, enough is enough.
Sorry folks but the answer isn’t taxing junk food. It’s teaching people from a young age how to cook and how to eat.
A couple years ago my daughter took an “independent living” class in high school. During the cooking part they were taught to make such “nutritional meals” as hamburger helper, macaroni and cheese, brownies (out of a box – the teacher had no idea you could do it any other way), rice krispy squares, and pasta salad (again out of a box). My daughter has been cooking real food since she was 9 and she laughed at the idiocy of this class! And we wonder why our kids grow up and fill their own grocery carts with all this “goodness?”
So my first recommendation would be learn how to cook using real food. And second….teach your kids how to do the same!
Also, I’m not sure how anyone things eating healthy is more expensive. When I was on a really tight budget….and I’m talking less than $30 a week to feed me and my daughter….we both ate healthier than we’d eaten in years. My typical basket would include things like a bag of rice, beans, canister of oatmeal, head of lettuce, tuna, milk, eggs, plain yogurt or cottage cheese, whatever meat was on sale, fresh fruit and veggies that were on sale, and frozen veggies.
I also kept a pantry with staples like flour, corn meal, sugar (yes – I do use sugar sometimes), olive oil, some pasta, and other various ingredients which last a fairly long time. These were (and still are) used to make my own meals as well as biscuits, corn bread, sometimes regular bread, desserts, dumplings, etc.
And on rare occasion if I had a little extra money I’d buy real butter or cheese, jelly, or a box of cereal for my daughter (oatmeal and pancakes do get old after a while). I had no problem feeding us both with plenty of variety and tasty meals too.
Jayson,
I am in favor of this if it will help healthcare reform. I don’t think it will discourage consumption as soft drinks are woven into the american lifestyle thorough events such as cookouts, sports, etc. We are constantly bombarded with these images and for some it is hard to break away from them. People need to realize that companies care little about people and health and care lots about $$$$. We need to teach kids from an early age healthy eating but it would be hard since most parents don’t know how to do it themselves.
In school as I grewup we were taught that the difference between America and other countries was we were free to choose. Imposing taxes on sodas and whatever someone wants to use to control another group with is not the American way but is quickly becoming so. I see this as out and out communistic. The only ones this will affect is the poor any way so it won’t really solve the problem same as cigerette tax hasn’t changed anything other than some choose to smoke cheaper than their regular brand or drink cheaper beer. Nobody has stopped driving because of hifgher gas prices. This isn’t the way to go.
Why should I pay more for health care for all the obesity problems in America, when it’s not my problem that people don’t care to be fat? Why should my health insurance premium be high?
I agree with Obama taxing all the junk food & drinks so that these Lazy FAT ASS pays for the health care system.
I don’t have to worry about paying taxes on junk foods & sodas drinks, because it’s not a part of my daily diet. So these new taxes won’t affect me a bit. So yeah, tax ALL the junk food out there. Amen to Obama. I didn’t vote for him, but it’s about time someone came up with a brilliant idea. Kudos to Obama.
Maybe this time within the next 5 years, I don’t have to sit in between 2 fat lards at a concert & smelling their gross body odor. I don’t have to worry about sitting in an airplane or at a movie theater with a fat person who’s going to take over my seat. Most of all, I don’t have to worry hippopotamus hip & thunder thigh comes rolling along & bump me aside with such force because they needed to walk by the dance floor at the club.
People are no longer eating healthy food such as vegetable & fruits. They grab & eat everything from a box or a bag. All processed foods.
Solution: Stop eating McDonalds, eating junk, cook more at home and exercise!
I also don’t think taxing junk food is the answer. People should be able to choose what they put in their mouth. Unfortunately there are so many bad choices available. And the “food” industry isn’t helping by adding things like antioxidants (7-Up’s new product) to junk food. It’s still junk food, but there are many who would see the antioxidants and think it was a good choice. We need to educate not only on good nutrition, but also learn how to not be sucked in by advertising.
Why do people go for junk food in the first place? Because it’s CHEAP and conveniently available and neon signposted. It’s a bargain meal and you can eat twice as much just by paying a LITTLE bit extra!
Therefore, BRING ON THE TAXES, OBAMA!!
I just wish the English government (buncha poodles) had the balls to even consider this but no, they don’t want to upset the junk food industry and lose all that cash revenue!
I think is going to help. Is it going to stop people from eating this crap? No, but some people now can stop complaining that eating healthy is more expensive. That is the most common excuse from someone that doesn’t want to eat healthy.
I know a lot of people will still be eating crap but some people will stop and look for other options and that is a step forward.
I know that eating healthy is actually cheaper because not everything needs to be organic. Compare a package of 4 packs of 100calorie snacks to a bag of 4 apples and the apples cost half the price of these sugar snacks. But people make the excuse over and over again that eating healthy is more expensive. By making unhealthy foods more expensive some people will change their minds.
Being overweight is not one problem with one solution. It is the combination of different behaviors that accumulated creating the obesity or overweight problem.
Eating and drinking sugar is only a part of the problem and these companies can’t be shut down for economic reasons (jobs, global economy, or money for political campaigns, at the same time charity events, and sponsorships of other businesses)
The money from the tax should be use to increase the nutrition and health education of children so the future looks more prosperous and healthier. Instead of focusing on paying or not paying people need to focus on how that money can help, but we are too selfish to see that and the media knows it.
Bad idea. Let’s begin to educate the public regarding eating choices, what quality of food is good to consume. Keep government out of our lives.
MAN THAT WILL DO IT ! HAHA SUCKERS
jojo… You cant even say that, if they cant keep out of our lives, then do as much as you can.
I am totally against putting an additional burden on the average American. A new tax will not pay for the cost of health care, which is not really “health” care, but illness care. The health care system in America is as backward as many nations were 40 years. The health care and the food industry in the U S are controlled by the drug companies and these companies will not allow “good” and nutricious food and true “health” items to reach the market. They would go broke if we had true “health” care and “healthy” foods as the normal market items in the U S.
A careful study of the prepared foods shows additives which promote fat consumtion and overeating. Ads are designed to mislead the public about “healthy eating” and diet foods are the worst offenders.
Check the statistics about real health and the cost of medical care in the U S and in Europe. We spend more money by far and have much worse health than European countries where good nutrition and “real” food without chemical additives are the normal fare.
Any addotional taxes will only distract from the problem and will not solve a thing.
I don’t think taxing Sugary foods is the right solution. The only thing it does is take more money away from the consumer. This is a win for these big companies not a con because ultimately it wont stop anyone buying it. The key is making healthy alternatives as cheap and easy to buy as the sugary food.
I love eating fresh healthy food, and we just stopped in the States for a 16day holiday and I am dying to go home so I can prepare my own food again. It was so hard to find simple healthy food at a good price. Everything came fried, everything added bread and fries and bacon to the side of your dish. We tried to eat as healthy as we could – good restaurants, quality food – and it cost us an absolute fortune, then you see those disgusting Fast food ads promoting processed food that doesn’t even look like real food for 99c tacos and $2 burgers for sale and its easy to see why people in a lower social economic status as drawn to this food.
i think that taxing soda will push people into deeper poverty. or they will just switch to alcohol