| | |  Health & Beauty 
Fat Tax is the Best Way to Cut Obesity Argues the OECD
 Sean Poulter - Daily Mail UK
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November 12, 2010
| | Fatty foods: Restrictions on junk food advertising, better labelling and a 'fat tax' on unhealthy foods are the most effective ways to cut obesity, says a study. | |
A ‘fat tax’ on unhealthy foods, restrictions on junk food advertising and better labelling are the most cost-effective ways to cut obesity, a study suggests.
It says the measures would give England’s 52 million population an extra 270,000 years of good health between them.
Some studies suggest a fat tax alone would encourage the shift to a healthier diet and reduce deaths from heart disease and other illnesses by 3,200 a year.
Government measures to change diet are supported in the study by experts at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the World Health Organisation.
A key proposal suggests treating foods high in fat, salt and sugar in the same way as tobacco, where advertising is restricted and price has been pushed up to discourage use.
But the food industry claims the tax idea smacks of the ‘Nanny State’. The research, published in The Lancet medical journal, looked at how to tackle obesity and related ill-health in seven countries – England, Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Russia and South Africa.
Researchers found that a combined approach of taxing unhealthy foods, subsidising healthy options, restricting food advertising and improving labelling was cheaper than simply treating those who develop heart disease or cancer as a result of an unhealthy diet.
Other interventions such as counselling of the public by GPs were also found to be effective.
But the researchers found that targeting children in the classroom was likely to take at least 50 years to deliver positive results.
The authors said: 'A multiple-intervention strategy would achieve substantially larger health gains than individual interventions, often with a more favourable cost-effectiveness profile.
They said the strategy would pay for itself in about half the countries examined by reducing the cost to health services, and in other countries, it would become cost effective after a maximum of 15 years.
This analysis clearly shows that the strategic approaches that deliver best value for money are improved awareness and information, appropriate fiscal measures and enhanced regulatory mechanisms,’ the authors added.
One in four Britons is officially classified as obese, the highest ratio in Europe.
The Food Standards Agency is understood to be considering a consultation exercise to see whether a ‘fat tax’ would drive people to healthier food.
Last year, doctors from the British Medical Association only narrowly voted against supporting a fat tax on chocolate. In the U.S., President Barack Obama is understood to be considering a tax on sugary drinks to raise money for health care.
As far back as 2004, the Downing Street Strategy Unit floated the idea of a fat tax as a ‘signal to society’.
A study published by academics at the universities of Oxford and Nottingham that year suggested a wide-ranging fat tax would raise around £2billion a year and save up to 3,200 premature deaths a year.
But research by the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies warned that a fat tax would have a disproportionate effect on the poor, taking a greater percentage of their food budget than better off families.
A spokesman for the Food and Drink Federation said yesterday: ‘Such a regressive taxation policy would do nothing more than create lighter wallets for consumers.
'They would be likely to rail against any “Nanny State” intervention that represented a further tax on choice.’ |
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