Should There Be Higher Taxes On Junk Food?
Junk food is an informal term that refers to food that has low or no nutritional value. Junk foods are usually characterized with high content of saturated fats and calories and little vitamins, fiber, protein and trace minerals. These types of foods have become common among Americans because they are cheap and easily accessible. In order to reduce prevalence of Junk food in the American society, taxes on junk food should be increased. Junk foods are associated with various negative consequences such as; poor diets, poor spending, lack of discipline and diseases.
Increasing taxes would reduce accessibility of junk food to consumers thereby translating to a reduction of these negative consequences to the society.Increasing taxes on junk food would encourage healthy eating behavior and healthy lifestyle. Prevalence of junk food in our markets has barred many individual from eating proper meals and leading healthy life style.
Some of these junk foods such as chips and crisps are very cheap, easily accessible and require little or no preparation before eating and therefore making them highly preferable over healthy diets. Increasing taxes would make the prices of Junk food expensive thereby reducing the appeal they have on consumer. This would in turn make these consumers to turn to healthier diets such as vegetables, fruits, fibers, cereals and proteins.Junk foods are also associated with poor state of health and various forms of ailment.
Chips, crisps and other high fat content junk foods are linked to development chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetics, heart disease and obesity. Because of the high saturated fat content, these foods have become a major risk factor for the chronic diseases mentioned above. These diseases combined have become the greatest cause of death in the United States. Increasing tax on Junk food would help reduce incidents of these chronic ailments thereby reducing the mortality rate in our society.Reduced prevalence of Junk food in the American society would encourage savings.
Junk foods encourage impulse spending among individual who are accustomed to them. Such individuals often find themselves unable to resist temptations of buying these junk foods whenever they come across them. Reduced accessibility of junk food as a result of raised taxes would not only encourage savings by individuals, but will also enable the government to save up on its revenues too. A lot of government resources are spent in the treatment of cancer, diabetes, heart disease and obesity patients. Households holding patients suffering from any of these chronic ailments also spend a good fortune trying to take care of the patients.
Reduced consumption of junk food would reduce incidents of these chronic ailments thereby helping the government and families to save on resources that would otherwise be used to treat seek patients.Making junk food a little more inaccessible to the consumer would also promote discipline among these consumers. People highly attracted to junk food usually do so because these foods provide an easier way out for them having to spend their time to prepare and to take healthy meals. Making junk food unavailable would instill discipline in such persons by forcing them to work for what they need instead of relying on short cuts.
Individuals suffering from high junk food intake also exhibit lower concerns for their wellbeing. When junk foods are driven out of reach by the high taxes imposed on them, these individual would have to seat back and reflect on their habits. This may also force them to turn to healthy lifestyle such as eating healthy diets and exercising. Another form of discipline that may be instilled by higher junk food prices is adoption of regular time schedule for meals.
Individuals that are heavily accustomed to junk food do not usually follow a fixed meal schedule. According to experts having meals at irregular time is not best for the body. When individuals can no longer rely on Junk foods which are currently available everywhere and at anytime, they will have to go home for meals thereby forcing them to observe regular meal schedules.Higher taxes on junk food would also translate to more revenues for the government.
The government has been struggling to mobilize resources for use in campaigns aimed at educating the society about healthy living and impacts of junk foods. The government has struggled even more to raise resources for treating patients suffering from diseases brought about by excessive reliance on the unhealthy junk foods. The government can easily raise the resources required to perform these duties by imposing higher taxes on the Junk food. By doing this the government would be killing two birds with the same stone.
This means that those who would not be discouraged from taking junk food by the increases in prices would be reached by the education programs enabled by taxes collected from the sale of junk foods.In summary, Junk foods present a lot of negative consequences to our bodies and lives while presenting us with minimal or no benefits at all. Such substances are not worth enjoying the popularity they currently have in the market. Increasing taxes on the junk foods would help reduce their popularity among consumers and in the process avoiding the bad consequences associated with them.
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