Putting an 18% tax on pizza and soda would likely get U.S. adults to reduce their calorie intake enough to lower their average weight by 5 pounds a year says a study out of University of North Carolina. This would help with your healthy weight loss diet.
The estimate on this soda tax or junk food tax would save people 56 calories a day. Really??
Do you really think that someone would reduce their intake by 56 calories because they are not buying soda or junk food? Or better yet that a higher tax will stop people from buying these foods.
Bad soda. Shame on you!
Are we really blaming soda and junk food for our obesity? What about our brain telling our hand to put the food in our mouth? Or our brain telling us to put that bad soda in our shopping cart?
When you are buying a shopping cart full of groceries this week are you going to analyze how much tax is being charged on the specific foods you are putting in your cart. If that could potentially work then why not lower the tax on healthy foods so someone saves money and lowers their grocery bill when choosing healthy foods.
Policymakers are once again treading into an area where they have absolute no experience and have no clue what they are doing.
Don’t blame soda and junk food for your failed healthy weight loss diet.
Let me hear your opinion. You just heard mine and now I want to hear your opinion on this.
Yours in good health,
Jayson Hunter RD, CSCS
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Just what we need: more taxes. Ugghhh. I’ll do my best not to get started on how awful our govt is at managing the tax revenues we so generously pay them. Thinking about it only gets me mad.
And yes, people need to think for themselves and hold themselves accountable for their actions.
But I am curious, are there any stats on whether or not the massive taxes on cigarettes have stopped people from smoking? It does seem fewer and fewer people smoke these days. Or do I only think that way because they can’t smoke just anywhere in public? (Thank God.)
I would have to agree 100% with Jim. I do not believe that there should be a higher tax on food, alcohol, or tobacco just because some suits think its bad for us. Although I choose not to participate in the consumption of any of these products does not mean I think way to go Washington!!! squeeze every last penny out of the American public until there is nothing left and we look just like Russia before the fall……..
I would also just like to say, What agency/program has the government run successfully??? correct me if Im wrong but I believe EVERY government run agency/program is bankrupt. Why would i want them to take more money from anyone?
It depends on how it’s done, is my guess.
My take would be to just ban soda drinks and, of course, cigarettes. But that might be a bit extreme. To some extend, I do blame it on the sodas etc. It seems that the soft drinks companies understand consumers brain better than people in Washington. How many people really buy what they want/need rather than what we are conditioned to like?
A big chunk of the population doesnt know what to eat, what not to eat, what to drink, what not to drink. We follow what we are told. Just like if your mechanic tells you this is good for your car or not. How do you really know? Same for your food. How many people will actually dig the information on what is suitable for them? More and more thankfully! I just think the government is not helping.
Perhaps we should tax the bad foods but subsidize the good. If the Government really wants to get involved in helping people make better choices they should look at why it is cheaper to eat fast food than healthier choices.
Price will not dictate people not drinking soda only them deciding to fuel themselves better will.
A tax wouldn’t work anyway. Look at cigarettes. They tax as much as they can and yet people still smoke. It won’t stop candy and soda consumption.
Let me ask you this. If a soda was $20 and a glass of water was free, would you be less likely to buy the soda than if the soda was $1? That’s an exaggeration, but it’s simple economics. When something costs less, more people buy it. That’s why you have sales on Prograde products occasionally, I assume. An 18% tax would reduce consumption. You can bet that if gas rose by 18%, I’d think twice about driving unnecessary errands.
I’d say this tax is a good one, because I won’t have to pay it. Maybe they can use the money generated to fund grade school PE or healthier school lunches.
Also, raising the tax on junk food is pretty much the same as lowering the tax on healthy food in that it’s ultimate effect makes healthier food relatively cheaper.
These kinds of “nanny state” taxes and things just make me crazy. I hear people frequently speak about the rights of others, but never a mention of responsibility.
As one of my favorite speakers and authors, Dr Ed Cole, frequently taught, “When you let others create your world for you, they will always create it too small.”
The bigger the government, the smaller the person. I’m tired of playing small…
I say tax the crap out of anything that is chemically processed, has saturated fat & trans fat, non-organic, etc… (standards would have to be set-strict). Sure people will still buy this junk but it will help to bring down the deficit.
Then have the government have incentives to buy organic items and meats by lowering the costs on these items. More and more people would start eating better and that alone would start improving health issues.
Ok, maybe you don’t agree with taxing things you can eat (notice I did not say food) but consider the second point about organic items.
Hey Everybody: In a perfect world we would all make the good food choices, and the food production industry would not put all sorts of chemistry, ie, hormones, antibiotics, high fructose corn syrup, and the list goes on and on, that cause all manner of change in our bodies.
I agree that individuals must make the appropriate food choices, but consider that at every turn they are constantly bombed with advertising that says that junk food is cool, and that the chemistry that cheapens, alters, and extends its shelf life, is considered all good.
A gigantic tax is one of the few tools available to stem the tide of this poisonous consumption. Contrary to the optics, the taxing of cigarretes has dropped the numbers of smokers in this country, along with the “evil” government mandated ban of smoking in public places.
I would most definitely tax junk food into oblivion, if it were in my power to do so, and use the tax to subsidize whatever “real” food we have left.
The Governments solution to everything is to tax it. And like most things it tries, it doesnt work.
Why should something costing 18 cents more, put people off buying it?
And what does this say about personal responsibility? That the person should hand over responsibility to the government.
To me, this is a marketing ploy… what we think is bad for us, we want even more. By placing a tax of candy and soda, guess what happens? Yup… it will stcik out in our minds and we’ll want it even more. I agree that healthy foods should be inexpensive and easy to attain instead the opposite is true. I don’t think America is going to wake up and its a deadly cycle of destruction that needs to be addressed.
It’s time everyone realized that the government can’t possibly micromanage your life in any respect and do a good job. This is a bad idea even if taxing or banning soda would cause every obese person in the country to magically become thin and healthy. Any time you ask the government to enforce what you think is a good idea, sooner or later they will use that power to force on you something you don’t agree with. We’d all be better off if everyone just worried about themselves and their own family and quit going to the government to try run everybody else’s lives.
This is just another way for government to stuff their coffers. They know that the majority of the population like junk food and they also know tax will not prevent them from buying junk food. People are going to eat what they want to eat irrespective of the cost. You are perfectly right reduce the tax on healthy foods and give encouragement to people who do buy them. Of course this will never happen.
Everything the govt. gets its hands on turns to junk. Let’s just hope that they do not get a hold of our health care…. PLEASE NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!
What I find strange, is that 18% tax will supposedly save 56 calories a day. Ok then if they make it 20% would that make it 60 calories?
What I am trying to say how did they come up with 18%? It is absurd.
It’s just another tax grab, disguised as trying to help people.
Soda and pizza may not be nutrient dense foods but the last thing we need is the government telling us how to eat by trying to strong-arm us with additional taxes. Here are some questions:
- How is the government going to spend this additional tax revenue to combat childhood obesity?
- Did the taxes on liquor stop Nancy Pelosi from spending 100,000 of tax payer’s dollars on her Boeing 757 booze last year?
- What’s next? Taxes on French fries, donuts, hot dogs, ice cream, cookies, cakes, candy, pies, salami, bologna, sausage, bacon, fried chicken, etc.?
- Are soda and pizza the only foods causing children to become obese?
- Could a lack of children’s activity level have something to do with it?
- Could eating too much have something to do with it?
- Is it a good idea to increase taxes on so many who are out of work or under-employed?
- Was the founding fathers’ idea of government to tell it’s people how to lead their lives within the law?
- If everyone in this country stopped smoking, would the government be happy? Or would they find some other way to collect the tax money they lost from cigarette sales?
I think we all know the answers to these questions already.
Nuff said!
Here in Canada alcohol and cigarettes are heavily taxed much more than in the U.S.
A 6 pack of beer in Canada is about $10.00 compared to $5-$6 in the U.S.
The rate of alcoholism is almost 2% lower than in the United States.
The greatest drop in cigarette smoking (prior to 2007) occurred in the early 1990′s when when cigarette tax was increased by almost 30%.
Plus the additional revenue from those taxes are funnelled into our health care.
I believe the soda tax is a good thing. it’s not going to get everyone to stop drinking it.
But they will be more conscious of how much they consume.
Not because of the bulging of their belly but the thinning of their wallet.
I say tax but put that tax money into PE programs in the schools. Although telling my age, we had the Presidential Fitness Award that we actually had to work for. That was a big deal to us and I don’t remember anyone, even the 1 or 2 overweight kids out of hundreds, that didn’t try.
Does soda consumption add to American obesity–yes.
Should the government add a tax to soda–NO!
The government is not taxing soda because they think this will stop people from drinking it. They are taxing soda because they can. They want people to drink the soda and pay the tax. They will get more of our money any way they can and will tax anything they can!
As another writer said, if health was really their rationale behind the tax, they give us a break on heathy food.
I think taxing soda is a good idea, they can take the money and use it to pay for all of the health care these people will need from drinking that cr@p! TSomeone has to pay those bills, why me when I don’t drink the stuff?
There is evidence that high taxes do cut comsumption – it did work on cigarettes and it will work on soda and other ‘bad’ foods. The estimated calories saved is determined by figuring out the average number of sodas that will be cut from each person’s diet. So if they estimate 56 calories, it means that most people will consume about 1/2 can of soda less (the average 12 oz can has 120 calories). This will especially impact consumers who drink 6 or more sodas per day and there are a lot of them. Is this the right way to accomplish the goal? I don’t know, but just telling people they are killing themselves isn’t working, so perhaps we should try this and see if it works any better.
The american gov’t is not doing this to help anyone. They know they need more tax revenue, and they figure this might be a way to get it done with at least a segment of the population being on board with it. If the gov’t really didn’t want people to smoke cigarettes or drink soda, they would make it illegal. The only way our country can be saved from the direction it’s headed is if congress was somehow pressured into passing legislation that said all elected officials have to receive the same medical care, same retirement benefits, and send their children to the same schools as ordinary folks. But that will never happen. Not enough people wake up and band together until it’s too late to do anything about it. Our gov’t has already created such a disconnect between the majority and their representatives, that there is no accountability or responsibility that the gov’t has to live up to. Every year i’m more and more tempted to expatriate to another country. If you want to tax the crap out of us fine, but at least manage and spend the money wisely and for the greater good. If you prove after 50 to 70 years that the system of gov’t that we have can’t manage or spend tax dollars wisely or for the greater good, then leave us alone and let us handle our own business. Over the last 50-70 years the american gov’t has a pretty poor track record with managing our tax dollars. I’m going to precede my next jab with this statement I AM NOT A DEMOCRAT, I HATE ALL POLITICAL PARTIES, BUT SLIGHTLY LEAN TOWARDS BEING A LIBERTARIAN. For all you brainwashed insane right wing republicans that always chant your propaganda about those damn DEMS spending too much money which will have to raise taxes, our national debt has skyrocketed more under the last 4 republican administrations than under the last 4 democrat administrations. And for all their rhetoric about small gov’t, they have done more harm to our constitutional rights and privacy and increased gov’t quite a bit more. Wake up, they tell you what you want to hear, but they don’t really believe it and they don’t really care about you. The politicians that truly care about improving this country are the ones that are brave enough and have enough principles to NOT be a democrat or republican even if it means they never get elected. They refuse to play the dirty game. Instead of supporting this, most american say don’t throw your votes away on someone that doesn’t have a chance to win anyways. How is that standing up for your rights and principles? If you want to see real change stop voting republican and/or democrat. Vote independent. It may take a generation or two to take effect, but we have to start somewhere. Wow was that a crazy rant or what. I’m out of breath and my heart is racing. I’m going to go drink a soda and smoke a cigarette to relax.
Totally Agree Jayson,
Our government isn’t getting the “picture” here at all. As obesity rates are sky high the only solution they have is to apply more taxes. Didn’t they try this with cigarettes? Are there less smokers in the world because of it?
Unreal. Inch by inch the gov’t is slowly reaching the point where every single aspect of our lives will be taxed and regulated. It’s easy to say tax junk food because it’s “bad”, but come on, we live in THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Who are they to tell us what is bad? If I want to go to the mall and get a deep fried twinkie and then wash it down with extra large sugar laden soda why should I have to pay an extra tax.
I think people need to realize that this just opens up a door to bigger regulations and a lot bigger problems.
People go into these things blindly (anyone remember taxes on just the rich which became taxes on everyone) and eventually it turns into the gov’t controlling the way we eat.
Remember the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Cheers!
Comparisons to taxes on cigarette are irrelevant; those taxes are on ALL cigarettes. Even IF such taxes would decrease consumption of soda or pizza, it’s likely that most people would simply exchange one crap choice for another.
Instead of soda, they might start drinking lattes or sugary juice drinks or iced tea. Do you know how many calories are in some of those designer coffees? There are worse foods than pizza. Taxing it, MAY make someone not each as much pizza but who’s to say they wouldn’t substitute pizza for a Double Whopper and fries or a Bloomin’ Onion?
Taxes did very little to cut down on cigarette consumption. I was still silly enough to smoke back then, and always found a way to keep up the habit. The biggest deterrent wound up being massive service campaigns, such as the Truth campaigns and such.
But consider this: if the government raised the tax with the intent to make, say, $100 million, and it caused people to quit smoking, the government would then need to find another source for that revenue. Let’s say, pizza and soda. So if this cuts down in pizza and soda consumption, the government will need to find something else to tax. The pattern will repeat.
This has nothing to do with health conscious government–it has to do with a government with out of control spending and a desire to control every aspect of our lives.
When are people just going to take responsibility for themselves? The soda and pizza didn’t make them fat! THEY DID! Putting a tax on soda is like putting obese people in a higher tax bracket…because they’re FAT. Geez….
I’d like to know what are they doing with the thousands of dollars each one of us pays EVERY year to our government. I think the American people need to demand an accounting, and right now! Are they out of their minds?
As much as I’d like to see measures taken to reduce American obesity, i don’t think this is the answer. Because where would it stop? First soda…then foods with sugar, then anything not made in the USA, then anything not organic. I mean really, once you start taxing one food, how do you justify taxing/not taxing the others?
You said “why not lower the tax on healthy foods so someone saves money and lowers their grocery bill when choosing healthy foods”
We already DON’T get taxed on healthy foods. Food we buy at the grocery store is not taxed. Household products like toilet paper and dishwashing soap are taxed, but not food. Perhaps it might make some sense for soda and junk food to be in the non-food category and be taxed the way other non-food items are taxed.
Add more tax to encourage healthier eating? BUNK! Increasing th tax will have the opposite effect. This is especially true of the younger generation who are the bigger users of “junk food”. This is evident from what I have seen with taxes on cirgarettes and gasoline.
To help make things better, cut taxes, make less government or at least more effective for the dollar. Government appears that they are trying to punish those in lower income brackets while those in upper tax brackets have extra deductions.
What a joke! Just what we need…more taxes and more government involvement in our personal lives. This is a just a huge waste of time and energy.
The people that drink soda and eat unhealthy foods will continue to do whether or not they have to pay a little bit more for their “sins.” There isn’t a single person I know that smokes cigarettes or drinks alcohol any less than they did because of higher taxes. They just complain about how much things cost while they puff and sip away.
Write your representatives. Vote them out of office. Tell them how you really think they should be spending their time and resources. If you don’t speak out, this is the kind of garbage legislature they “work” on.
I do not live in the US but one thing that truly amazes me whenever I visit is how cheap junk and fast food is. So now the US government wants to tax soda and pizza, just two of the myriad of unhealthy type foods. As an unaffected bystander I have a couple of thoughts
1. Taxes on cigarettes have worked with the sales of cigarettes in the US decreasing by 2% per annum since 1998. However, this has been in conjunction with a massive education campaign so it would be very difficult to say if it was price or information that caused this decline. However it is clear that education is key to changing behaviours.
2. Taxing two food type products seems ridiculous when buying behaviour can easily shift to another untaxed but equally as unhealthy product.
3. It seems this tax is more a PR campaign than an actual attempt to reverse the growing obesity epidemic. In the US, massive subsidies are given to the sugar, corn and soy industry (amongst others). This is one of the reasons these foods are so cheap and hence junk food is so cheap. So instead of stopping these subsidies which would cause these powerful lobby groups to revolt, they tax two food products. So the government gives money with one hand and takes some back with the other, no doubt much of the money being lost in ‘admin’ costs on the way through. If the subsidies were stopped then the food in the centre aisles of the supermarket would be fairly priced and much more expensive, and the government would have billions of dollars for public education, health care and maybe even subsidies for fresh produce.
4. On average people in the US spend less of their disposable income on food than many other developed nations and have much higher rates of people with obesity and being overweight. People in the US while spending less also consume significantly more calories. In the US about 9% of disposable income is spent on food, about 3,600 calories per day per adult is consumed and obesity rates are 34% and overweight rate is 68% of the adult population. France and Italy spend about 15 to 17% of disposable income on food, consume about 2,400 to 2,600 calories per day and have obesity rates of 9.4% (F) and 8.5% (I) / overweight rates of 28% (F) and 33% (I). Japan which has one of the lowest rates of obesity globally spends 21% of income on food, consumes about 2,100 calories per day on average and has obesity rates of 4% and overweight rates of 22%. In the US, your grandparents and great grandparents spent about 30% of their income on food and now it is 9% and obesity has soared. So lesson is spend more on better quality food if you want to stop obesity but how do you educate the population to spend more on food and not on the giant TV?
5. Just as an interesting footnote, in the US, as in many other developed nations, over 30% of food is actually thrown out. Imagine if this wasted food and money were put to better use.
They know that most junk food is addictive (huge amounts of sugar and fat) and these thieves we keep putting into our government see a way to line pockets with tax dollars. We have to get this political monster off our backs folks once and for all. We have to educate ourselves more and not just vote for a certain party because that’s what my dad did or mother or whoever did, so what the hell so will I.
All I can say, Pelosi and the gang are tyrants. They think we are uneducated. That all Americans will fall for the smoke that comes from DC. Tax will not help. They are just looking for a way to pay the many “PET” projects they want.
Corporations know how to make money. Our gov’t is a corporation, even if most Americans don’t see it. This is just another way for them to have there hands in one MORE business. Pepsi, Coco Cola.. follow the Piper..
Obviously, I’m going to point to the same example as many people above: cigarettes. People who smoked before the taxes went up several times are pretty much still smoking.
I think the ones who came up with taxing cigarettes knew that it wouldn’t deter people from smoking. That’s the point. Something out there depends no the income from that tax.
Just like speeding tickets. They don’t really actually prevent drivers from speeding. It just trains drivers to be on the look out in order to not get caught. Those that didn’t speed still don’t speed and vice versa.
The purpose of a tax is supposed to be to create revenues (at least that is my understanding), so some agency somewhere is depending on those people who will not stop buying these products just because the price went up. So, there is a disconnect somewhere by trying to say that a tax is a preventive measure. If it’s completely successful, meaning everyone actually stopped buying soda and pizza or whatever they taxed, some agency/group/program somewhere would also fail/lose funding and new revenues would have to be generated for bad planning.
Obviously, banning certain food items, or even cigarettes (debatable, considering inevitable and direct health risks to others) would just cause these products to just go underground AND violate the principles of freedom that our country was founded on. Lots of things are illegal, yet people still find a way to acquire them or use them.
The long-term solution has to center around education. If we don’t fix the root of the problem, which is ignorance (not everyone reads or watches Jayson’s site) and possibly addiction, through education, counseling, and medical treatment as necessary, then we are just masking the problem–throwing a cup of water at a time at a burning building to try to put the fire out. It just isn’t going to work.
I’ll be up front – I’m what I guess 1 would call a Libertarian (since we label everything – that’s what someone would label my beliefs). I’ve got no problem with expanding certain taxes while lowering other taxes. Taxes I would raise – pop, candy, fast food, bakery items like pies, cakes, donuts, cookies, pastries etc, coffee, tea, ice cream, chips, cheetos, doritos etc, basically any food/drink item that can’t possibly promote health (not an extreme tax – 5-10%). IMO alcohol/tobacco have been punished enough. This isn’t for “nanny state ” purposes but ways to increase revenue in what call “sin taxes”. While I’m @ it – legalize prostitution/drugs & tax those as well. Taxes I would lower would be payroll, capital gains. I feel the same % of tax for everybody – 10% or so. Obviously this would lead to limiting the size/scope of gov’t. The people would be better off in a system that promotes & encourages personal responsibility, free markets (we haven’t had this here in a long time). Health care is a personal responsibility IMO. For that matter lets call it for what it really is – disease management. The gov’t never has & never will know what’s best for you as an individual & your family.
As far as banning foods – I would have no problem banning hydrogenated fats, high fructose corn syrup, MSG (in all manufactured forms/names). I also would have no problem implementing a ban of factory farms (I’ve sen vid’s – very disturbing knowing this ends up in our food supply) over a period of 5 years or so. Give tax incentives for family/organic/free-range farms. Get rid of price supports (which BTW is supporting the corn being made in to hfcs). Ban Monsanto’s/Dupont’s stranglehold on the farmers. Legalize hemp. Ban irradiating our food supply as well as GMO’s.
If I missed anything – please let me know. Have a great day!
Will a soda tax help with your healthy weight loss diet? On me personally, No, I have been avoiding sodas for years and only drink them occacionally, so an increase on their taxes would have little impact on me. My personal problem with my weight is not junk food, it that I eat too much of regular food high in carbohydrates and fat and I don’t exercise as much as I should.
I think that it will only lower the consumption by a few percentage points, mainly on people who are on a fixed income like teens who don’t have a job of their own and are dependant on their parents for a fixed allowance.
This is just wrong.
First off, people are responsible for their own actions. This means they make the choice to eat and drink these things; nothing else is forcing people to make these decisions. By having a choice in what you eat or other decisions in your life you separate yourself from others in either a good or a bad way. This in turn shapes what your life will become. By taking this away, you might as well not have any choices at all.
Second, once you start taxing or banning things that are bad where due you stop. Also, things that were once good are bad but can be good again (eggs).
Third, the next step they will take is to limit the amount of advertising companies which sell junk food have to some how hide the products causing the problems.
Lastly, this is a form of discrimination. The government isn’t in place to decide who pays more for their lifestyle that is what our retail system is for. By acting this way they are going to punish those who use these products whether those people are over weight or not. And the people who eat horrible in other ways get off with out punishment. Besides, the people who are the most over weight usually drink diet soda anyway.
Jayson – this is no different than taking all full calorie soda from school (k – 8). Why was soda ever there anyway? What does taking the full calorie soda away accomplish?
Blaine
I do not use soda period, so for me it don’t matter weather they increase the taxes on them or not. But why go that route? Why not subsidize or lower the price on healthy foods if you want to help promote a healthy lifestyle? Or are the power brokers trying to rake in a 100 percent profit feeding the unsuspecting or potentially less persons this poison? Simple sugars and worst yet artificial sugars are dangerously addictive and psychologically infectious. In a nutshell I don’t see how this tax could benefit anyone but the producers.
I drink only sugar-free soda. Why should I pay the tax? There’s no way it can be excluded from sugar free sodas at the restaurants that have beverage bars where you can fill up with any soda choice.
We subsidize the corn growers so HFCS is cheaper than sugar, then tax the consumer? Stupid, but typical of the government..