Wednesday, March 21, 2018

More Taxes?!

In Mark Bittman's article, "Bad Food? Tax It, and Subsidize Vegetables", he discusses how to decrease American consumption of junk food. His solution is to add extra taxes on foods with high amounts of sugar. With the new tax money paid, he planned to have it put into health programs that'll help fight obesity. So, not only does Bittman believe that the tax increase would discourage people from spending the extra money to buy junk food, but the extra profits can also be used to help ensure a healthier society. He also makes a point that by creating a healthier society, the government would have to spend less money on disease prevention like diabetes. It is suggested that the government stops creating subsidies for corn to make syrup, and to instead put subsidies on vegetables or fill vending machines with fruits and vegetables, a useful idea to help poor communities be able to afford healthier options. In Alice Waters' article, "No Lunch Left Behind", she speaks about the unhealthy food in school lunch programs. She explains that these same ingredients given to kids to supposedly help them become healthier, are the found in fast foods as well. Her solution is to get rid of the current way kids are provided food in school and to serve unprocessed, healthy food.

http://frac.org/obesity-health/low-income-food-insecure-people-vulnerable-poor-nutrition-obesity

This link provides many different factors that go into why poor communities struggle with adapting to healthier lifestyles.

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