At issue is whether the potential bill containing an “obesity mitigation fee” on food producers whose revenue from the sale of unhealthy foods exceeding 20% of total revenue violates Congress’s taxing and spending powers.…
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 34.9% of U.S. adults are obese with $147 billion being the estimated medical expenses in the U.S. for obesity. Looking at these staggering numbers raises one question, “Is Junk Food Really Cheaper?” Mark Bittman proposes several arguments throughout his well-written article. Due to the article being published in Everything’s An Argument, as well as the New York Times, the audience can interpret that this a very non-biased, credible article. The audience can also infer that this article contains well-informed research and gives a reflection of both sides of the arguments. Mark Bittman’s “Is Junk Food Really Cheaper?” explicates the burden on an individual’s finances as well as health, and successfully proves to the audience that junk food is in fact more expensive.…
Sacks, G., Veerman, J. L., Moodie, M. and Swinburn, B. (2011) ‘Traffic-light’ nutrition labelling and ‘junk-food’ tax: a modelled comparison of cost-effectiveness for obesity prevention. International Journal of Obesity, 35 (7) July, pp. 1001–1009.…
Journalist Robert Pearlberg quotes, “In 2010, Denmark increased by 25 percent its excise tax on chocolate, ice cream, sugary drinks and confectionary products… and timing of ads for foods high in fat, salt or sugar (par. 4). With this intention, obesity can prevented for future generations. Moreover, Pearlberg quotes, “The groups in the United States most likely to become obese are racial minorities… least able to access quality medical care (par. 9). However, this solution has an obstacle. Americans have relied on fast food for so long that imposing taxes on unhealthy, or sugary foods is unreliable for them. The poorer families rely on cheap fast-food to feed their families, and Pearlberg quotes that “Regulating food ads is also more difficult in the United States because our courts treat such ads as “commercial speech” constitutionally protected under the First Amendment (par. 6). Stopping obesity will take longer because of their objections on placing soda taxes, or the food commercials being protected by the First Amendment because it is treated as “commercial…
The fast food industry is not the only cause for obesity. One can buy this unhealthy food in abundance at pretty much any store that sells groceries. Even the public school systems provide this food to kids. Spurlock says that “[m]any lower-income kids depend on the federally funded National School Lunch Program for their primary hot meal of the day – and get basically the same high-fat, low-nutrition food dumped on them there as they’d get at a fast food joint” (26). Even though this problem is still prevalent, over the past few years the government has…
This new proposal would encourage more and more people to work out and burn off the extra calories consumed in their day. The country in a whole would become, possibly, the most healthy and fit country in the world if this Fat tax proposal were adopted. By just the simple act of eating healthy and working out daily, the United States would befit in heaps of ways. People’s life expectancy…
More and more young people are experiencing hypertension and childhood obesity, and because of which are seemingly becoming more prone to various diseases (Should Government Tax Sugary Drinks?). Many take a stand on the issue, as New York for example no longer allows the use of trans fats in their restaurants. Still the cost of unhealthy food has remained nearly the same, while the cost of a high yield diet has soared beyond that of the rate of inflation (Should Government Tax Sugary Drinks?). The idea has been presented that the government place a tax on unhealthy food, such as America’s favorite – soda pop! Various valid points have been made in relation to how this “sin” tax could help to benefit our financial deficit and better influence the people (A Tax That Invests in Our Health). Others object, saying that the tax is a form of discrimination, separating us about our assumed character and wellbeing (Does This Tax Make Me Look Fat?). Though the answer seems so clear to some at first how to go about imposing such taxes, it is important that the complexity of the situation is recognized to see if the tax would be effective enough to be worthwhile.…
There are many ideas to how to help the obesity problem, one being a tax on junk food; however, should the men and women buying the junk food be taxed or the producers of the junk food? The article “Tax the Producers of Junk Food, Not the Consumers” by…
We shouldn’t put a higher tax on junk food. It’s stupid to do that! People can eat what they want to eat, and it’s their problem if they get fat. If they abuse the “privilege” of eating unhealthy food, it’s their problem. We shouldn’t be worrying about what other people eat. You can’t change how someone lives their life. If they have lived for years one way then they will live that way for the rest of their life. There is no use in trying to change the way someone lives. How about we just leave the whole thing alone? It hasn’t been a problem in the past, so why is it such a problem now? If people want to live a certain way, then let them. It’s not our…
“In the U.S. obesity rates have risen from 14% in 1978 to 31% in 2000…according to WHO/FAO in 2001, chronic diseases resulting largely from poor diet contributed to 60% of the 56 million reported deaths worldwide” (Lang & Heasman 2004:53). Both Canadian and American citizens alike spend vast amounts of their money on food and a significant percentage of that money is spent on low-nutrition foods such as fast foods and processed foods. Being the cash cow that it is, the capitalist food system has provided the opportunity for corporations to profit numerous types of junk foods (fast & processed foods containing high sugar, salt, fat). According to Robert Albritton’s (2009:90) “Let Them Eat Junk,” he argues that “the consumption of junk foods…
It’s sad that we can’t do what’s best for our own health, but that’s sadly what it has come to. Therefore, the government needs to impose a soda tax. The soda tax debate has garnered big headlines in newspapers. It 's only fitting that the attention surrounding America 's obesity epidemic might come to rest on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs.) The nation 's penchant for soft drinks is on the rise; we now drink on average 50 gallons per person per year, about double the amount we drank in 1977. (The Soda Tax: Potential Weapon In America 's War Against Obsesity) Last year, in the New England Journal of Medicine, the directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Yale University 's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity…
Higher prices detour people from making a purchase. Some people are rich, some people are infatuated, and some people think bigger is better. While some lucky individuals would have the money to spend on junk foods and soft drinks if taxes were raised on them, it would surely intimidate them. Others may be a bit infatuated with unhealthy things and spend their money loosely, but the acknowledgement of other needs would surely kick in. Better items are indeed pricier, but bigger is not always better. The knowledge that you have a whole country backing you up is enough to inspire.…
The introduction of prohibition in the United States meant people could not manufacture or consume alcohol. Alcohol was banned by the government for obvious reasons, alcohol harms the body. Use of drugs without prescription is illegal and harms one’s health. Junk foods and soda pop are harmful as well. Yet we have never had prohibition on these food and soda items even though these food items affect public health. According to Yale University professor of psychology and public health, Kelly Brownell, “As a culture, we’ve become upset by the tobacco companies advertising to children, but we sit idly by while the food companies do the very same thing. And we could make a claim that the toll taken on the public health by a poor diet rivals that taken by tobacco”.…
One of the biggest issues Americans are faced with today are the increasing obesity rates that spread throughout the nation. The American industry makes it easy to eat unhealthy. Fast food is a quick, cheap, and tasteful meal made accessible to virtually anyone. When comparing prices at a grocery store, for the most part its clear junk foods are less expensive than healthy foods. If a tax was placed on unhealthy foods, it would make a substantial difference in the way consumers shopped.…
Class action and lawsuit to restrict soda and snack machines, mentions Faye I. Wong in the article The nation’s obesity epidemic: Who’s to blame? What’s to fix? from the journal Nation’s Health, have not worked (3). As a matter of fact, past research has shown that many of the food policies designed to improve food choices, such as requiring calorie information on restaurant menus and taxing sugar-sweetened beverages, do not always produce the intended results. Vikki Sloviter equally informs that Government organizations such as U.S Department of Agriculture have punished schools in support of enhanced children’s diets. Nevertheless, research has demonstrated that in spite of offers to reduce obesity individuals are still willing to pay taxes and ignore calorie…