...Tammy Thacker Obesity and the Proposal of Fat Tax English Composition II Dr. Wells October 27, 2014 Obesity and the Proposal of Fat Tax Obesity has become an epidemic in the United States of America. It is affecting our children's health to the point where they are being diagnosed with early onset diabetes and hypertension. . Obesity is the result of eating high fat, high protein foods along with a serious sedentary lifestyle. I intend to show that although obesity is on the rise applying fat tax is not the answer to our problem. Obesity is defined, medically as having a body mass index of more than 30. However, it can be effectively curtailed by lowering your caloric intake, exercise, and implementing healthier school lunches. The medical risks associated with excessive body weight is many and varied, include: osteoarthritis, coronary artery disease, stroke, and high cholesterol. Some people with obesity suffer from stress, low self-esteem, social disadvantaged and depression. According to data collected in the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1999), amongst U. S. adults aged 20-74 years obesity has nearly doubled from approximately 15% in 1980 to an estimated 27% in 1999. (Clark & Dittrich, November 2010) The obesity epidemic affects the world in the form of increase health insurance cost, medical bills related to different illness that occurs while being obese. It also poses for an increase in regular taxes so that the government can accommodate...
Words: 1201 - Pages: 5
...Taxing high-fat foods would be a great way to reduce the incidence of heart disease and help offset the cost of its treatment. While there is an epidemic of obesity in the United States and throughout the world, the cause is not at all well understood. Fat, sugar, lack of exercise, poverty, and giving up smoking have all been cited as reasons for increasing obesity. We are exposed on a daily basis to hundreds of advertisements, many promoting specific foods that are supposed to be convenient and nutritious. The food industry, miraculously, has escaped taking the brunt of the blame for years, using fast food as a scapegoat. Fast food, while a major contributor, is not the primary cause of the obesity epidemic in America. Numerous studies have proven that personal food choices, lack of exercise, and genetic disposition all play a role in a person's weight; however, there are other elements that influence our weight. In particular, food producers that supply products high in sugars, minimally nutritious, and highly processed foods that dominate our market must be examined. Sugar is clearly very deleterious and quite unnecessary for satisfactory nutrition but fat is not an optional part of the human diet. Fat is necessary for health, all your cell membranes are made of cholesterol for example, which makes this qualitatively different from taxing things like cigarettes and alcohol. Also there is no doubt that taxing food is regressive, the poor pay more of their incomes for food...
Words: 740 - Pages: 3
...Outline Structure I. Introduction A. Thesis: The use of drone strike’s is morally and ethically sound based on evidence that shows drone warfare saves American lives, are just as accurate as conventional air strikes, and save tax payers millions of dollars. II. Body Paragraph 1: The use of drone strikes has enabled the United States to neutralize thousands of terrorist targets without direct threat to American lives. B. Supporting evidence: 1. Explanation: You cannot put a dollar amount on a human life, however a U.S. military pilot has millions of dollars of training invested in them and the aircraft to make combat aviation safe. Look at the F-35 program for example it is highly experimental and has costed 1.5 Trillion Dollars. The most advanced drones such as the X-47B have only cost the United States 900 million dollars to develop and deploy due to the removal of the human element from flying the aircraft. 2. So what? If you look at all the aircraft crashes over the past decade they have killed 277 Americans. If you would have had drones in those combat areas versus manned aircraft those are 277 lives that could have been saved along with hundreds of millions of dollars in death benefits, lost training, and the cost of the aircraft. III. Body Paragraph 2: Topic sentence goes here. C. Supporting evidence 3. Explanation 4. So what? D. Supporting evidence 5. Explanation ...
Words: 780 - Pages: 4
...will settle for a breakfast meal for my stomach, I know it isn’t good for my body in the long run. However, after reading some of the writings of food activist Gary Sacks, I began to think more about what I should be eating healthy foods because there will begin to be taxes on unhealthy foods that are made. A prime example is in his article, “Traffic-Light' Nutrition Labeling and 'Junk-Food' Tax: a Modeled Comparison of Cost-Effectiveness for Obesity Prevention,” published in Nature Publishing Group, Sacks states junk-food' tax, price elasticity’s were used to estimate a change in energy intake in response to a 10% price increase in seven food categories. Sacks advice about the junk foods, my breakfast foods, starting to get taxed 10% makes me start thinking about what I should be eating. The waffles/French toast sticks with bacon have been pre-cooked and made so that the packaging can be heated up in a microwave oven, but on the same note, the food items look to be similar to the natural ingredients of the food that is made from scratch. The label on the package says that “USDA, UNITED STATES Department of Agriculture” approves it though. I realized that there are set lists of standards that the food inside of the packaging have to meet a certain qualification. If the USDA approves foods that are unhealthy like this, what is the purpose of them approving this for...
Words: 1827 - Pages: 8
...fight the epidemic. For example, in the year 2013 America tried to implicate a new taxation law on unhealthy foods called the “Fat Tax”. Any foods that were high in fats were going to have higher tax rates. However, could this taxation really have...
Words: 1158 - Pages: 5
...111 22 June 2015 Fat Tax: Why It Will Not Work Two out of every three Americans are considered to be overweight or obese. The growing obesity rate has led to high cholesterol, and an increase in chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and cancer. Can a tax on sugar and fat laden “junk” foods curb over-consumption? This works in theory, but in reality there are solid reasons why this tax won’t work. There are a large number of Americans that live in “food deserts” with limited access to healthy foods. For an obese person to make wise food choices, they must first value their health. Raising the price of unhealthy foods won’t instill value on health. One of the main reasons for the growing number of overweight Americans is the lack of exercise; a fat tax doesn’t address this problem. According to the Department of Agriculture, Food Deserts are defined as urban neighborhoods and rural towns without ready access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food. Instead of supermarkets and grocery stores, these communities may have no food access. In a food desert, residents are often served only by fast food restaurants and convenience stores that offer few healthy, affordable food options. For example, in Chicago, more than 500,000 residents live in food deserts, and an additional 400,000 live in neighborhoods with a preponderance of Hammond 2 fast food restaurants and no grocery stores nearby. Most of these people are low income. A food tax in these food deserts...
Words: 792 - Pages: 4
...ECF5921 Introduction to International Economics Assignment Question 1 Based on the article and other related readings of your choice, discuss the economic and social factors that have caused individual behavior to shift towards the consumption of unhealthy foods and unhealthy lifestyles. Compare ‘fat taxes’ and other alternatives that can be used address the problem. Which one would you recommend? Why? Answer Based on the article “Stick and carrots”, there are certain factors from economic and social aspects that have caused the individual behavior to shift towards the consumption of unhealthy foods and unhealthy lifestyles. From the economic perspective, the article “stick and carrots” has given the theory of rational consumption theory which states that as individuals incomes grow, the range and volume of commodities each of us will consume is growing meanwhile. Thus, the expenditures on general goods increases alongside the increasing of our incomes. That is one of the reasons that nowadays general individuals may have more chances to gain fat (as food is one of the general consumption) by purchasing more food, especially cheap and tasty junk food. Moreover, the improving of technology within the food proceeding may also resulted in a fall in the price of food, as well as the availability of a wide variety of cheap foods. Other than just buying more food as the income effect itself, individuals also tend to substitute away from consuming relatively high-priced...
Words: 4658 - Pages: 19
...“Do we need more regulation on food? Why or why not?” Food regulation is a developing concept that constantly requires attention and iteration in order to minimize food safety and health risk and best manage and communicate these risks. Food Regulation is the production, processing, distribution, retail, packaging and labeling of food items and constituents that are governed by a mass of laws, regulation, codes of practice and guidance. Similarly, food safety is a scientific discipline describing handling, preparation and storage of food to prevent foodborne illness. Though similar, the differentiating factor is that food safety informs food regulations. Consider food safety as the assessment and food regulation as the management and communication domains to reduce risks. The current piece will evaluate the scope of food regulation and look at how it has been developing over the years. The current piece highlights the mechanism of food regulation, explores major players and shares several differentiated case studies to further navigate food regulation problems and implementations. Over the course of history, food regulations, both proposed and implemented, have represented the primary concerns that arose during a certain period of time. Food regulation has been enforced since 300 BCE and since then, one of the most important food regulations was enacted in 1906 through the Pure Food and Drugs Act. The Pure Food and Drugs act prohibited interstate commerce...
Words: 1788 - Pages: 8
...but without the complimenting foods, you can almost deem them useless. The point in which I am making accuses the government of making our diet into a business. The government suggests that we eat healthy and provide us with guides such as MyPlate, only for us to find that the foods that are most recommended also carry the highest price tag. This causes me to believe that the government may not have our health as their main priority. I find myself thinking this every time I make a trip to the grocery store. I am proposing that, we the residents of Lebanon County raise awareness of this to our local government authorities and from there it will become recognized nationwide. Solutions to this problem may include tax breaks for producers of healthy goods as well as tax breaks for those who are self-sufficient, people who live off the land so to speak, as well as other monetary incentives to promote a healthy diet. Currently, the main problem arises when “junk food” is heavily discounted when compared to “healthy food”. This is a serious problem, in my opinion this shows that the government looks at money more highly than the people that it governs. We, the residents of Lebanon, can be the start to the change of this type of ideology of the government and make them govern us, with us as their main concern and not money....
Words: 2666 - Pages: 11
...Over the past years, the obesity epidemic has been becoming more of a problem in the United States. In 2010, one-third of children and adolescents were deemed overweight. This fact alone should be very scary as this generation holds the future of our nation in their hands. Obesity is an issue that should be a focus for nutritionist, economic analysts and all those concerned about the future of this nation. It has been proposed that taxing sugar sweetened beverages would solve the obesity problem in the United States. It is important for everyone to begin fighting obesity now before it gets worse. Obesity leads to diseases such as Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, Coronary Artery Disease, Coronary Vascular Disease, Heart attack, stroke, and even...
Words: 779 - Pages: 4
...July 19, 2013 Daniel Riera-Crichtona and Nathan Tefftb Abstract: Recent clinical research has studied weight responses to varying diet composition, but the contribution of changes in macronutrient intake and physical activity to rising population weight remains unknown. Research on the economics of obesity typically assumes a “calories in, calories out” framework, but a richer weight production model separating caloric intake into carbohydrates, fat, and protein, has not been explored. To estimate the contributions of changes in macronutrient intake and physical activity to changes in population weight, we conducted dynamic time series and structural VAR analyses of U.S. data between 1974 and 2006 and a panel analysis of 164 countries between 2001 and 2010. Findings from all analyses suggest that increases in carbohydrates are most strongly and positively associated with increases in obesity prevalence even when controlling for changes in total caloric intake and occupation-related physical activity. If anything, increases in fat intake are associated with decreases in population weight. JEL classification codes: I12, I15, O13, Q18 Keywords: Obesity, Macronutrients, Health Production a Department of Economics, Bates College, Lewiston, ME 04240, USA Department of Health Services, School of Public Health, and Department of Economics, College of Arts and Sciences (beginning September 1, 2013), University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA b Acknowledgments: The...
Words: 12313 - Pages: 50
...governments and communities are trying to address the problem through legislation, nothing will change until parents take a more active role in promoting the health of their children, therefore, not all the blame for American obesity is on fast food consumption. Obesity is one of the fastest growing health concerns in the U.S. In America, only one out of the fifty states has a B.M.I under twenty-five, the number that is considered to be the benchmark for determining overweightness (BMI Index by State). The number of obese children and adults has tripled and doubled, respectively since 1980 (Obesity at a Glance). “Research from a national health survey shows that an astonishing sixty-five percent of American adults are either overweight or obese” (Loonin 14). Obesity has had a profound impact on the youth population of the world, as the percentage of overweight adolescents and children has risen over twelve percent since 1970*. If this trend is to continue, it is even projected that by the year 2030, one half of the American population will be overweight (Half of Americans to be Obese by 2030). As it is now, in the United States, one half of the adult population is overweight or obese (Ingram 8). Tommy G. Thompson, former president George W. Bush’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, explains why obesity is such a glaring problem for Americans: “Overweight and obesity are among the most pressing new health challenges we face today. Our modern environment has allowed these conditions...
Words: 1887 - Pages: 8
...Encouragement of Government Tax on Unhealthy Food Have you ever asked yourself, “Why are so many people in the United States unhealthy?” Well, the answer to that question is because we are an unhealthy nation in which most of us enjoy the lavish fulfillment we get from the consumption of these unhealthy foods. However, what we fail to realize is that these unhealthy foods can cause a rise in health issues. In my opinion, a government policy that taxes sugary and fatty foods is a much needed approach. According to the Center of Disease and Control, 69 percent of Americans are overweight, with 35 percent of that being obese. This issue alone leads to more serious health issues within the same category of people. These people did not become overweight by eating healthy; therefore, these sugary and high-fat foods are causing an epic issue. If the government influences a tax on unhealthy food, this should reduce the growing epidemic of obesity. I’m not saying this would totally eliminate obesity within the United States but it would lead to a healthier nation. If there are higher taxes on certain foods, there most likely will be more people who will choose not to purchase them. Secondly, these taxes could be used to go towards the cost of healthcare as well. I feel that it is about time for the government to step in and take charge because obesity needs to be regulated because it is one of the nation’s most funded...
Words: 252 - Pages: 2
...past thirty years is that urban and suburban designs discourage walking and other physical activities (acvitvelivingresources.org). This increase in childhood obesity can also lead to adults with heart disease and diabetes. Government Influences on Food Choices and Options The government plays an important role in what we eat and what is sold. For example, all food sold must be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). They have taxes in place such as the fat tax to help reduce obesity in the U (abcnews.go.com). The government also has basic guidelines to food consumption such as the food pyramid. The government also has control over how food is marketed. For example, USDA, along with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), may start limiting how the food industry markets junk food to kids (news.change.org). Overall, the government plays an important role in what everyone in the United States eats. Nutrition Plan Goal: Lose 5 pounds by June 22 Current weight: 125 Repeat Weeks 1,2,3 & 4 Sunday: -Breakfast: 2 pancakes -Lunch: BBQ chicken sandwich, water, Apple -Dinner: Side Salad, Beer Battered Fish Tacos, cuscus Monday: -Breakfast: Fruit & cheese -Lunch: Herbed Cheese & Tomato Sandwich, strawberries, grapes -Dinner: Seared Chicken with...
Words: 733 - Pages: 3
...Novak, N. L., & Brownell, K. D. (2012). Role of Policy and Government in the Obesity Epidemic. Circulation, 126(19), 2345-2352. doi:10.1161/circulationaha.111.037929 This article shows that obesity is the top priority of public health in the United States. Reducing obesity requires changing policies to improve the food and physical activity of all Americans, not just individuals. However, experience shows that implementing some policies that are good for public health is difficult in politics. This article can help my article gives some of the policies to solve the problem of unhealthy...
Words: 1119 - Pages: 5
