Like the effort to control smoking with ever increasing tobacco taxes, those concerned with our obesity epidemic, and declining western health, are now moving to similar taxes on one of the major culprits which is sugary drinks like soda pop. New York mayor Bloomberg was ridiculed when he attempted to make a difference on this front several years ago, but now Philadelphia, PA has such a tax with the funds directed to early childhood education.
Only time will tell how much this tax will change anything, but it is a step in the right direction for a country with over thirty percent of its population dangerously obese, and all related health problems like diabetes and heart disease increasing rapidly.
Getting Americans to recognize the dangers of smoking took half a century, and there are still people who smoke, but the totality of measures from taxing, education, warning labels, and removal of ads that encouraged smoking finally made a dent in what was a growing lung cancer crisis. None of these changes happen quickly, but nothing will change without some effort toward addressing the problems associated with our western high sugar-starch foods that dominate in our super markets.
I saw some of the ads by purveyors aired during the run up to the election, and they were in my opinion shameful distortions, calling the measure a grocery or food tax: we all know that soda is not and never will be food. But such is the greed factor that always seems to be as strong if not stronger than the human health factors.
Other places are moving this direction, so I expect it will be the norm before too long. One step for human health, and not before time.
Yours in health,
Nan aka Sugarbaby
PS: Update–Seems the tax may work: http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-soda-tax-works-20160823-snap-story.html
Sugaraholics 