Taxing Fat
The purpose of food taxes is to reduce sales of the products concerned. By introducing its fat tax in 2011, which was dropped after only a year, the Danish government also wanted to ___ 31 ___ revenue, reduce costs associated with obesity-related diseases, and increase health and longevity. A year is hardly time to assess its impact on health, but the tax did bring in \216$ million. Danes will now face higher income taxes to make up for the loss of the fat tax.
Business groups insist that the tax had no effect on the amount of fat that Danes ate. ___ 32 ___, economists at the University of Copenhagen say Danish fat consumption fell by 10 to 20 per cent in the first three months after the tax went into effect. However, it is not possible to know whether it fell because of the tax or because of the slump that hit the Danish economy.
Is a saturated-fat tax good public policy? All food fats are a mix of unsaturated and saturated fatty acids. Saturated fats raise the risk of coronary heart disease, although not by much. Trans fats, banned in Denmark since 2003, are a greater risk factor. Because the different fatty acids ___ 33 ___ in their risk, imposing a single tax on them as if they are indistinguishable is difficult to support scientifically.
For these reasons, anti-obesity tax measures in other countries have tended to avoid targeting broad nutrient groups. ___ 34 ___, they focus on processed foods, fast food or sugary drinks – all major sources of calories. Taxing them seems like a more promising strategy.
What else should governments be doing? That they have a role in addressing the health problems caused by obesity is beyond ___ 35 ___, not least because they bear much of the cost of dealing with such problems. In the US, economists estimate the cost of obesity-related healthcare and lost productivity at between 147billionand147 billion and 147billionand190 billion a year. Thus, the need to act is urgent. But how?
Marion Nestle, New Scientist