My Soap-box...you heard it here first.

"Fat-tax"In the United States, overweight and obesity are increasing in both the adult and children’s populations. According to results published from the 1999-2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), an estimated sixty-five percent of U.S. adults are overweight or obese, while approximately sixteen percent of children and adolescents ages 6-19 are classified as overweight or obese.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to maintain or lose weight in our current environment, because we live in a society which promotes overeating and at the same time discourages physical activity. Additionally, we live in a society filled with “all you can eat” buffets, and we spend hours sitting in a car going to and from work, sitting in front of a computer, or watching television, making it easy to have high caloric intake and at the same time, decreased caloric expenditure.

We live in a country where the food industry produces nearly 150% of our caloric need each day. This means that after everyone consumes their daily quota of calories, there are still enough calories available to feed another 50% of our population. We live in an environment of plenty, where finding food or drink is as easy as walking into a convenience store, Starbucks, or gas-station.

“Obesity is a socioeconomic issue, in that limitations of social and economic resources are related to disparities in access to healthy foods.”--Journal of Nutrition 2005.

“Grocery stores are unable to adequately house and store fresh fruits and vegetables.” In fact, in these hard-to- reach, low-income, and possibly unsafe areas, it costs the manufacturers and distributors more to bring food in, making the cost of fresh fruits and vegetables higher than in more affluent neighborhoods which are easier to reach, safer, have better and cleaner grocery stores, with better storage capabilities, and have more food choices available.

As it stands now, it costs less to purchase the foods of an unhealthy diet than it does one that is rich in fruit and vegetables, fresh dairy products, soy products, and fresh meats, fish, and meat alternatives, foods which do not get much in the way of “air-time” on television or in propagating their nutritional benefits.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) and its co-sponsor, the Produce for Better Health Foundation, have a one million dollar annual budget to advertise the importance of eating “five a day” fresh fruits and vegetables. Meanwhile, McDonald’s, Coke, Pepsi, Kraft, and other food industry giants are able to spend tens of millions of dollars on advertising chips, cookies, high-sugar cereals, and other snack-food items, including beer.

Despite the need, there are too few programs designed to promote healthy diet and physical activity. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) only has funds to spend about one million dollars annually on its media component of its 5-A-Day campaign to encourage greater consumption of fruits and vegetables.In addition, it is the food industry which create these high-fat, high-sugar foods, and create the market to attract consumers.

In order to make it worth their while to create these products, they must sell them. To do this, they advertise the taste, cost, and novelty of a product, promoting its consumption. It is time to reverse these trends, tax foods which deliver too many calories, too much fat, too much sugar, too much sodium, and too few micronutrients, and in turn subsidize programs which promote the consumption of healthy foods which are micronutrient dense, in their most natural state, and which add to the health of the diet; not fight against it. In trying to alleviate the nutrition problem of overeating and over-consumption which lead to overweight and obesity, it is my goal to change the environment in which we live.

I want to go beyond lifestyle behaviors and personal choice, because all too often, these factors are just not strong enough to make a larger impact on society as a whole. Overweight and obesity affect the whole country, and one way this occurs is through the increased cost of health-care. In order to truly impact a nation-wide change within the U.S., it will be necessary to change laws that govern food cost, thereby changing the availability, accessibility, affordability, and desirability of purchasing unhealthy foods. For the health of our nation, it is prudent that the government be called to action to make healthy fruits, vegetables, whole-grains, and lean meats less expensive and easier to obtain, make fat-promoting foods more expensive to obtain, and make it easier and more affordable to be physically active.

It is necessary that this action be taken sooner rather than later. One can argue: By placing a tax on certain food items, or certain food types, we are intruding on an individuals’ right to choose which foods he or she eats, or that we would be punishing individuals who do want to eat high-fat foods. Yet, we tax cigarettes, liquor, and gasoline, and we limit the selling of alcohol to individuals over age 21, so, I pose the question: Why not impose a fat tax and classify certain foods as a health hazard, just like we do with tobacco and cigarettes?

There is a tax on tobacco products because tobacco products have been shown to increase health-care costs by increasing the incidence of lung cancer and emphysema. Additionally, cigarettes are known to kill. Granted, food is needed for sustenance, for life, while cigarettes are not.

However, food, if used improperly, also causes adverse health consequences in the form of overweight and obesity and its associated diseases, which may also lead to death.It is naïve to think that personal responsibility is the only factor that must be addressed in trying to reduce overweight and obesity.

Personal responsibility is so easily trampled on by the inexpensive cost and convenience of unhealthy foods. Therefore, my policy proposal is to increase the cost of unhealthy foods with taxation, making them appear less desirable, taking the money raised from the taxes and redirecting that back into food assistance programs, marketing of healthy foods, advertisements and education for healthy-food initiatives, and fruit and vegetable subsidies.

My goal in establishing the “fat tax” is as follows: The “fat tax” is a tax on the product itself, not on the individual who chooses to consume that product. The “fat tax” is not designed to target individuals who fit the anthropometric, height and weight parameters for overweight or obese, as that would be discriminatory.

Rather, the goal of the “fat tax” follows a similar conceptual framework as that of the tobacco tax. It is a tool designed to deter the purchase and use of health-damaging products. It is time to demand change and active participation from our government in health promotion, and the “fat tax” is one way of achieving that change.