The suggestion by Dr David Walker in Scotland (Land of the deep-fried Mars bar) that chocolate should be more heavily taxed because it is adding to the 'obesity epidemic' with its attendant health costs (in terms of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, tooth decay etc) is interesting (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7938282.stm) but perhaps a bit misguided. It is fairly obvious that 'excessive' calories without much exercise is likely to lead to obesity but taking in too much of almost anything ("Who ate all the pies?") can exacerbate the problem. It might be at least as appropriate to tax potatoes, flour, palm oil or sugar. It seems to me that the general message of a healthy lifestyle (appropriate food and drink intake with reasonable exercise) is what we really need to aim for. Do we need dens of illegal chocolate ingestion or smugglers of Belgian chocolates? Worryingly, I prefer hot chocolate to coffee!
Thursday, 12 March 2009
Tax the Pies!
The suggestion by Dr David Walker in Scotland (Land of the deep-fried Mars bar) that chocolate should be more heavily taxed because it is adding to the 'obesity epidemic' with its attendant health costs (in terms of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, tooth decay etc) is interesting (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7938282.stm) but perhaps a bit misguided. It is fairly obvious that 'excessive' calories without much exercise is likely to lead to obesity but taking in too much of almost anything ("Who ate all the pies?") can exacerbate the problem. It might be at least as appropriate to tax potatoes, flour, palm oil or sugar. It seems to me that the general message of a healthy lifestyle (appropriate food and drink intake with reasonable exercise) is what we really need to aim for. Do we need dens of illegal chocolate ingestion or smugglers of Belgian chocolates? Worryingly, I prefer hot chocolate to coffee!
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5 comments:
"Nanny nation" strikes again! I can just imagine having to visit a chocoholics speak-easy to get a fix of the sweet stuff.
Whats next? A debit on doughnuts? Or pehaps a fine for frying?
Actually I think it sounds rather wonderful. The idea of illicit meetings with like minded people in an orgy of self indulgence, mmmmm bring it on!!
Seems that there are chocolate libertarians and crypto-chocoholics out there!
There is an interesting article on the Student BMJ website regarding chocolate and obesity, I found this part particularly interesting
"..despite having the highest global per capita chocolate consumption (9.9 kg a year), Switzerland has one of the lowest incidences of obesity and coronary heart disease in western Europe whereas the United States consumes only 4.6 kg/year and has the highest mean body mass index in the Western world."
The article can be found here.
http://student.bmj.com/issues/04/09/education/315.php
An important observation. I think the difference is that most Swiss run, ski and walk. Perhaps they deserve the chocolate?
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