Taxing Junk Food?

A slimmer’s poll this week reveals that the majority would support a junk food tax, providing the money was used to subsidise the cost of healthy foods, like fruit and vegetables, to make them more affordable.

 

The poll, conducted by Slimming World, said that 48% of the 1,000 people they asked supported a junk food tax, but this rose to 90% if the money it raised was used to subsidise healthy food.

 

The research was prompted by a series of reports in the Lancet that predict that around half of people will have an obese BMI by 2030. The authors of the report blame aggressive advertising and lobbying by the food industry for the rise in the number of people who are overweight, proposing a a tax on junk food to reverse the trend.

 

What do you think?

 

Comments so far include:  ‘Taxing junk food would only help if the money was used to subsidise healthier food. Otherwise all it would do is to make shopping more expensive for the people who can least afford it.’

 

And, ‘Most foods that are on offer in the supermarket are high calorie convenience foods. It’s never fruit and vegetables. Simply taxing high calorie foods won’t stop people using them. We need to find ways to encourage people to eat healthily, rather than just discourage them from having  junk food.’