Doctors call for 'fat tax' on Coca-Cola and Pepsi

[Ally_Kat]

Doctors call for 'fat tax' on Coca-Cola and Pepsi
from Barry Wigmore in New York



Doctors will this week declare war on America's soft drinks industry by calling for a 'fat tax' to combat the nation's obesity epidemic.

Delegates at the powerful American Medical Association's annual conference will demand a levy on the sweeteners put in sugary drinks to pay for a massive public health education campaign.

They will also call for the amount of salt added to burgers and processed foods to be halved.

The moves come as U.S. doctors - like their British counterparts - are becoming increasingly alarmed at the growing number of deaths linked to obesity.

The resolution will put doctors on a collision course with Coca-Cola and Pepsi, plus the likes of McDonald's and Burger King.

Sales of soft drinks in U.S. schools are in decline ahead of the introduction of guidelines allowing only healthier low-calorie drinks, plus milk and certain fruit juices, over the next two years.

But the medical association wants to go further. Delegates at its Chicago conference are gunning in particular for high fructose corn syrup, the sweetener which is added to everything from ketchup to cola.

One American politician labelled it the 'crack of sweeteners' because it is so widespread.

Some U.S. cities and states already levy taxes on soft drinks or junk foods that raise £500million a year, said Michael Jacobsen, director of the Centre for Science and the Public Interest, an independent health watchdog. But earmarking tax revenue for programmes promoting better diet would be a first, he added.

American doctors are seeing the same alarming trends as those in Britain where obesity is considered to be a 'ticking timebomb of epidemic proportions'.

More than 30,000 Britons die each year because of obesity. In England, 47 per cent of men and 33 per cent of women are overweight, with around a fifth being obese. The problem costs the Health Service £500million in consultations, drugs and other therapies.

Life insurance companies are considering increased premiums for overweight clients because so many are dying prematurely from heart disease and cancer. Cancer Research UK has warned that obesity will soon cause more cancers than smoking.

Just as alarming is the rapid growth in childhood obesity. Among six-year-olds, one in ten is classed as obese, rising to one in five among 15-year-olds.

The Government has warned that the current generation of schoolchildren could be the first to live shorter lives than their parents.


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[Ally_Kat]

Personally, I think this is frickin stupid. It's not what you eat but how and when you eat it. There are people I know who practically have Pepsi in their viens and they only top out at 110lbs.

And if I eat healthy and want to treat myself to a guilty pleasure and enjoy some MickeyD fries, I'd be punished for it?

[Terry]

Pretty tough to legislate common sense, or tax tubby couch potatoes out of existence.

I say, put MORE fattening shit in soda and fast food products. Speed up the hardening of those arteries and kill 'em off faster. More food for the rest of us who don't have a greedy gut.

Either that, or these people need to keep their faces out of the chip bags and walk their asses around the block a few times.

Whole thing is just another example of people blaming something else for their lot in life, when the cause is clearly themselves.

[FORD]

Why don't the doctors instead demand that the Coca-Cola and Pepsi corporations cease and desist from using high fructose corn syrup in any of their products. Sugar cane can be grown in an abundance large enough to run every fucking car in Brazil, so they can certainly grow enough of it to sweeten fucking Coke in the US.

The meteoric rise of obesity and diabetes in this country began at the same time the soft drink manufacturers converted over to this over-processed unnatural poison. It's no coincidence, and any doctor who remains willfully ignorant of that fact is not fit to practice medicine.

[Coyote]

Originally posted by FORD
Why don't the doctors instead demand that the Coca-Cola and Pepsi corporations cease and desist from using high fructose corn syrup in any of their products. Sugar cane can be grown in an abundance large enough to run every fucking car in Brazil, so they can certainly grow enough of it to sweeten fucking Coke in the US.

The meteoric rise of obesity and diabetes in this country began at the same time the soft drink manufacturers converted over to this over-processed unnatural poison. It's no coincidence, and any doctor who remains willfully ignorant of that fact is not fit to practice medicine.

Don't forget aspartame. That shit'll clog you up.

[Little Texan]

Originally posted by FORD
Why don't the doctors instead demand that the Coca-Cola and Pepsi corporations cease and desist from using high fructose corn syrup in any of their products. Sugar cane can be grown in an abundance large enough to run every fucking car in Brazil, so they can certainly grow enough of it to sweeten fucking Coke in the US.

The meteoric rise of obesity and diabetes in this country began at the same time the soft drink manufacturers converted over to this over-processed unnatural poison. It's no coincidence, and any doctor who remains willfully ignorant of that fact is not fit to practice medicine.

Amen. About the only Coke I've drank lately is good old Mexican Coke with real cane sugar in it. The inferior American HFCS version just pales in comparison. Mexican Coke tastes better, and while it still can't be considered good for you, it's better for you than American Coke.

I also wish they would do away with HFCS. It should be criminal for these greedy corporations to put this shit in everyone's food. It isn't just soft drinks they put HFCS in, but just about every food product you buy these days has it as an ingredient.

[BigBadBrian]

Originally posted by Little Texan
Amen. About the only Coke I've drank lately is good old Mexican Coke with real cane sugar in it. The inferior American HFCS version just pales in comparison. Mexican Coke tastes better, and while it still can't be considered good for you, it's better for you than American Coke.

I also wish they would do away with HFCS. It should be criminal for these greedy corporations to put this shit in everyone's food. It isn't just soft drinks they put HFCS in, but just about every food product you buy these days has it as an ingredient.

Are you fat like FORD?

We know why he is ranting about it.

BTW - what Ally said.

[Little Texan]

Originally posted by BigBadBrian
Are you fat like FORD?

No. I have a little bit of a gut, but other than that, I'm of average size and weight.

[Susie Q]

The fat people will be pissed just as much as the smokers being pissed about cigerette tax.

Tax it ALL I say....LOL