Junk food tax could help fight obesity: US study

Makes sense that if you raise the price of an item, less of it will be bought, though this is the absolute wrong way to go to deal with the matter of overweight/obesity (e.g., there are no "healthy foods," everyone is penalized not only the calorically irresponsible, etc.) (Here is the right way.)

Taxing high-fat and sugary junk food is a more effective way to fight obesity than making healthy foods like fruit and vegetables more affordable, a study published Wednesday shows.

Researchers at the University of Buffalo in New York, led by psychologist Leonard Epstein, gave 42 mothers just over 22 dollars to spend at a "supermarket" set up in a room at the university and stocked with images of everything from bananas to whole wheat bread to cola drinks and cookies.

The women were told to imagine that they had no food in the house and that they were going to the supermarket to get the week's shopping for their family.

In the simulated supermarket, the women had the choice of 30 healthy and 30 junk food items, four healthy beverages -- two types of juice, skim milk and water -- and four sugary drinks, all represented in images.

The women went shopping five times. The first time, the prices of all the food and drink items were on par with those in a local supermarket.

Twice, the prices of healthier foods -- those that deliver more nutrients for fewer calories -- were lowered, and on the remaining two shopping trips, the prices of the unhealthy food and drink items were raised.

The researchers found that hiking the price of junk food, as would happen with a so-called "sin tax," was more effective at getting the women to buy a week's shopping that was lower in overall calories than was cutting the price of the healthy food items.

Still, this is collective punishment and hurts the calorically responsible.

The better way to go is to tax those things that only fatsos use (e.g., Nimitz Class scales, Bunyanesque clothes), have the fat pay more for sick care insurance, have them pay more for sick care needs (e.g., greater out-of-pocket contributions for the use of mega-ambulances), etc.