We may love our cheddar cheese fries and sugar-laced sodas, but if they cost more than what we have in our pocketbook, we tend to leave them alone. Therefore, a tax on junk food could potentially say lives, experts say.
The city of Philadelphia imposed a 2-cent tax on each ounce of soda sold. That adds up to about 32 cents for a half-liter bottle. Researchers say that if a similar tax was applied throughout the U.S., there would be a real impact on health.
LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - "What we found was that an 18 percent increase in soda price translated to a 56-calorie reduction per day, which translated further to less weight gain over a year," nutritional epidemiologist Penny Gordon-Larsen says. That naturally would lead to a healthier and happier population.
The Department of Nutrition at the University of North Carolina conducted a 20-year study of adults at risk for heart disease. They compared their eating habits and food costs, and found an inverse relationship between the cost and consumption of foods like sugary sodas and pizza.
For example: The city of Philadelphia imposed a 2-cent tax on each ounce of soda sold. That adds up to about 32 cents for a half-liter bottle. Gordon-Larsen says that if a similar tax was applied throughout the U.S., there would be a real impact on health.
"At about that level of an increase, we would see that we would cut calories by about 124 calories per day and that you would have a large reduction in weight and risk of diabetes," she says.
Researchers say that increased taxes on cigarettes have been effective in lowering smoking rates among teenagers. "In the adolescent age group, we would expect that the price manipulations would have a larger effect on caloric intake and also on weight."
Experts suggest that taxes applied to sugary or fatty snacks would lead to reduced consumption, and in turn would lead to lower rates of diabetes and obesity.
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