Children's Health & Fitness ? Will A ?Fat Tax? Help Tackle Obesity?

July 1st, 2012 by Len Saunders

From The Conversation?..

OBESE NATION: It?s time to admit it ? Australia is becoming an obese nation. This series looks at how this has happened and more importantly, what we can do to stop the obesity epidemic.

Here Suzie Ferrie explains why a fat tax isn?t enough to deal with the problem while Kathryn Backholer and Anna Peeters look at the relationship between socioeconomic status and weight.

We often hear calls for a junk food tax or ?fat tax? when there?s discussion of Australia?s growing obesity problem. The idea behind such a tax is that it would enable governments to subsidise healthy foods so that they?re more affordable, and make unhealthy foods comparatively expensive so people buy less of them.

But would they really? Is cost really the most powerful determinant of what food products people buy?

Let?s consider the likely effects of a junk food tax. Researchers claim that a 20% tax on a can of soft drink would be a sufficient deterrent to purchasing it.

To read the full story?..Click here

Entry Filed under: Health / Fitness Articles

Source: http://www.lensaunders.com/wp/?p=1835

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