April 23, 2024 — “Taxing unhealthy food helps cut obesity, says global study. Mexico is leading the way in implementing taxes on unhealthy food options, successfully helping to tackle obesity and related health issues.” This is the start of a breathtaking press release from Imperial College London. But those opening lines are more fiction than fact. First, the publication […]
October 11, 2017 — The soda tax we barely knew in Chicago is fading into history. Big soda is celebrating a win. Big soda haters are nursing their wounds. In the face of intense public pressure yesterday, the Cook County Board of Commissioners voted to roll back the county’s tax scheme on December 1. It only went into effect […]
August 30, 2014 — A new analysis of potential policies for reducing childhood obesity is generating headlines saying that “Taxing sugary sodas could help fight childhood obesity.” This is one time that the media isn’t hyping what the authors say. In their paper, Kristensen et al follow their hearts and conclude that “a national $0.01/ounce SSB [sugar sweetened beverage] […]
June 23, 2014 — Taxing obesity is an idea that has been bouncing around in health policy forums for more than a decade. When fat was seen as the villain, a “fat tax” was the catchphrase of the day. Then Denmark implemented a tax on fatty foods that went down in flames after less than a year. The “fat tax” catchphrase faded […]
March 25, 2013 — Hungary is in the midst of a food tax experiment to shape healthier diets and blunt the impact of obesity with the chronic diseases it brings. France, Finland, Denmark, Britain, Ireland, and Romania have either tried food taxes or considered them. But right now, Hungary stands out for a particularly ambitious effort. In the last […]
