Effects Of Obesity On Unhealthy Food - 2501 Words

Unhealthy foods are identified by linked to being significant causes of obesity. For example, the number of children with obesity has doubled while children receive 12% of their calories from fast food (Szabo 1), so fast food would be included in the spectrum of unhealthy food. Also in this category, are junk foods, such as chips and candy, sugary beverages, such as soda and added-sugar fruit juices, as they have also been associated to obesity and do not provide proportional nutritional benefits. Foods would not be the only thing affected by the tax. Related services would also be affected, such as fast food restaurant drive-throughs. Skepticism may arise to a tax affecting such a large industry in the US, but an UFT is not as†¦show more content†¦Subsequently, if an UFT was enacted in the US, the consumption of unhealthy foods would theoretically go down just like the soda consumption did in Mexico. A decrease in consumerism due to a tax has been observed in the US as wel l in the form of a cigarette tax. The trends gathered from the sugary beverage tax in Mexico suggested that a soda tax would work similarly to the cigarette tax in the US (Sanger-Katz 1). The cigarette tax was found to be effective in pushing down the sales of cigarettes in the US. Fifty years ago, the percentage of US adults who smoked was 42.4% and in 2013, the percentage was 17.8% (Rifkin 1). If an UFT is similar to a cigarette tax, it would make sense that an UFT would also push down sales of unhealthy foods. Hence, according to history, past experience, and significant data, an UFT would most likely work and thus benefit the whole US. But some may argue that an UFT in the US would not weaken unhealthy food consumption because a similar tax has failed in many other areas. The idea of a tax influencing consumerism in the US, especially on food, a basic necessity of life, may be questionable. Even more so since an UFT has failed more times than it has succeeded in the US, according to previous attempts. In the US alone, â€Å"soda tax proposals†¦. Have failed in New York State, San Francisco – and Philadelphia, twice† (Sanger-Katz 1). Statistically speaking, of the attempts of exercising a soda tax in US cities and states with