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Should junk food be taxed?
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No, absolutely not. It wouldn't be right as it's still food. With that being said, I would suggest a tax credit for the extra cost a diet brings with it, including health club fees, etc. This would maybe encourage people.0
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spondypete wrote: »No, absolutely not. It wouldn't be right as it's still food. With that being said, I would suggest a tax credit for the extra cost a diet brings with it, including health club fees, etc. This would maybe encourage people.
A gym or active living tax credit would be awesome!1 -
A tax on junk food would end up being a tax on the poor and I can't support that.2
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peaceout_aly wrote: »What are your thoughts?
As a total fitness and health buff, my answer is YES. Although, "junk" could be defined in all different ways. Let's start with McDonald's, Little Debbie cakes and that sort of stuff. It would significantly decrease the level of obesity in our country. Go to Croatia, Denmark, Stockholm...no one is obese and it seems like it has a little something to do with their non-fast-food and junk food based diets.
Why not protein powder? It has less overall nutrition than plenty of things you could buy at a McDonald's, it is purely a convenience food.
Exactly1 -
peaceout_aly wrote: »What are your thoughts?
As a total fitness and health buff, my answer is YES. Although, "junk" could be defined in all different ways. Let's start with McDonald's, Little Debbie cakes and that sort of stuff. It would significantly decrease the level of obesity in our country. Go to Croatia, Denmark, Stockholm...no one is obese and it seems like it has a little something to do with their non-fast-food and junk food based diets.
And here-in lies a big part of the problem with trying to define junk food - you can get healthy food at McDonalds (they have salads and stuff) that most reasonable people would not consider junk, and on the other hand, I eat an LCHF diet so the stuff that you might want to call junk (like the burgers) fit very nicely into my WOE and are not junk to me (I don't eat the buns with the burger)... so who gets to win in this definition of junk?!?
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peaceout_aly wrote: »What are your thoughts?
As a total fitness and health buff, my answer is YES. Although, "junk" could be defined in all different ways. Let's start with McDonald's, Little Debbie cakes and that sort of stuff. It would significantly decrease the level of obesity in our country. Go to Croatia, Denmark, Stockholm...no one is obese and it seems like it has a little something to do with their non-fast-food and junk food based diets.
Which method has better results - negative or positive reinforcement?
Instead of taxing junk food, provide incentives for positive behavior. Setup an achievement system which rewards through tax deductions.
Oh, brilliant idea!0 -
peaceout_aly wrote: »What are your thoughts?
As a total fitness and health buff, my answer is YES. Although, "junk" could be defined in all different ways. Let's start with McDonald's, Little Debbie cakes and that sort of stuff. It would significantly decrease the level of obesity in our country. Go to Croatia, Denmark, Stockholm...no one is obese and it seems like it has a little something to do with their non-fast-food and junk food based diets.
Why not protein powder? It has less overall nutrition than plenty of things you could buy at a McDonald's, it is purely a convenience food.
@VegetaSKJ Yes but protein powder has a ton of different uses, like over 9000.1 -
I guess the question is would we agree to tax it if there is impact on obesity / weight? The link isn't particularly strong, despite people's opinions.
From pure correlation, if we want people to lose weight, we should be subsidizing soda, sweat snacks, and salty snacks. Sweat snacks in particular.
foodpsychology.cornell.edu/discoveries/junk-food-blame
Though it does say for 95% of Americans there is no relationship between eating those foods and BMI2 -
I guess the question is would we agree to tax it if there is impact on obesity / weight? The link isn't particularly strong, despite people's opinions.
From pure correlation, if we want people to lose weight, we should be subsidizing soda, sweat snacks, and salty snacks. Sweat snacks in particular.
Wouldn't a sweat snack be a salty snack? I try to avoid sweat snacks in general though.5 -
singingflutelady wrote: »I guess the question is would we agree to tax it if there is impact on obesity / weight? The link isn't particularly strong, despite people's opinions.
From pure correlation, if we want people to lose weight, we should be subsidizing soda, sweat snacks, and salty snacks. Sweat snacks in particular.
foodpsychology.cornell.edu/discoveries/junk-food-blame
Though it does say for 95% of Americans there is no relationship between eating those foods and BMI
Yes, but the thing they're most linked to - if anything - is underweight, rather than overweight. So move away from being overweight to being normal weight by eating more sweat and salty snacks, but stop before you hit underweight. Makes sense, doesn't it?
I found that odd too0 -
Oh they also never clarified if that is soda in general or just regular soda as I know lots of underweight people who drink tons of diet pop0
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peaceout_aly wrote: »What are your thoughts?
As a total fitness and health buff, my answer is YES. Although, "junk" could be defined in all different ways. Let's start with McDonald's, Little Debbie cakes and that sort of stuff. It would significantly decrease the level of obesity in our country. Go to Croatia, Denmark, Stockholm...no one is obese and it seems like it has a little something to do with their non-fast-food and junk food based diets.
Which method has better results - negative or positive reinforcement?
Instead of taxing junk food, provide incentives for positive behavior. Setup an achievement system which rewards through tax deductions.
Can I claim both the six pack credit and the 5k deduction or do I have to choose one or the other?1 -
singingflutelady wrote: »I can also name many non obese people who eat "junk food". Junk food isn't the problem
Just like you can name many people that drink alcohol (which has an excise tax in the US) but are not alcoholics
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Russellb97 wrote: »peaceout_aly wrote: »What are your thoughts?
As a total fitness and health buff, my answer is YES. Although, "junk" could be defined in all different ways. Let's start with McDonald's, Little Debbie cakes and that sort of stuff. It would significantly decrease the level of obesity in our country. Go to Croatia, Denmark, Stockholm...no one is obese and it seems like it has a little something to do with their non-fast-food and junk food based diets.
Which method has better results - negative or positive reinforcement?
Instead of taxing junk food, provide incentives for positive behavior. Setup an achievement system which rewards through tax deductions.
I agree! And quit subsidizing large corn manufacturers and instead subsidize produce sold at local farmer markets.
This will naturally make the cost of processed food go up and local produce go down without labeling "good" and "bad"
While local farmers markets are great the is now way they can provide enough food for a city.0 -
Aaron_K123 wrote: »A tax on junk food would end up being a tax on the poor and I can't support that.
So the poor need soda to survive?1
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