Why soft drink and sugar taxes are coming eventually....

Today's Post:  Tuesday, 8-14-2012

1.  The good news first:

a) Initially they will help governments that are now cash strapped, become a bit more solvent and have to cut key services less.

This is so much the case, eventually that will overcome the lobbying against it.

b)  In an article in the Insight section of the Sunday, 8- 12-2012 San Francisco Chronicle, author, Robert Weider, notes that economists say that “three fourths of US health care expenses go to treat”…. “diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and some cancers” that sweeteners and artificial sweeteners cause directly or are a strong contributing cause of.

The very high cost of these avoidable and increasing diseases is a massive brake on our economy and one of the hidden reasons we haven’t rebounded well from our recent recession.

c)  The wonderful news for governments is that this means that every penny they collect in soft drink and sugar taxes saves our economy more than it costs!

Other taxes on sales and income and fees take money from the main economy enough that raising them tends to slow the economy.

With soft drink and sugar taxes, the reverse is the case.  Literally within a year or two they boost the economy through lower health care costs by more than the money they raise.

d)  A study was done showing that if you made foods that support health less expensive, shoppers bought the same amount they did before and used the savings to buy more fattening treat foods.  But when the fattening treat foods were made to cost more, the shoppers then bought more foods that support health.

This means that taxes on soft drinks and sugars and other sweeteners work to cut intake and improve health and cut health care costs even in people who don’t yet have a clue how harmful these things really are.   Yes, in five to ten years most people will know how harmful these things really are.  It’s definitely trending in that direction.  But a tax on soft drinks and sugars and other sweeteners begins to work as soon as the tax does! 

2.  The bad news is that not enough of mainstream voters know or in many cases even dream that soft drinks and sugars and other sweeteners are so harmful.  Some at least have a clue they are fattening.

The problem is very much like the frog who was cooked because the temperature of the water he was in was raised so gradually he passed out before he noticed and then was cooked.

When the sweetened foods commonly for sale in local stores and many people you know eat or drink them and you see them advertised almost every day – and this has gone on for years it’s understandable that you will see them as normal.  You’ll feel this is the way things are so it must be OK.

When these things taste good too it adds to this perception.

The companies who originally made them as occasional treats found that the subsidies to make staple foods more affordable for people and other things such as using the heart attack causing hydrogenated oils helped make these treats less expensive and more profitable to make.  About the same time, they discovered they could sharply increase sales with TV advertising.

Both these effects were gradual and initially the companies were simply giving people a bit more access to treats most people liked.  More recently, they have become like the cigarette companies and sell things they know are that harmful because they can’t stand to stop making the money from them.

Since these treats can be OK when made with real food components and eaten as rarely as they once were, the treats and the real food components they are made of should stay legal.

(Hydrogenated oils are proven to be a direct cause of heart disease.  But in addition to that, because they are only cleared partially each day by your body, any regular intake of them will cause heart disease to some degree because the amount in people’s bodies builds up to high levels.  And, since there is NO safe regular intake, hydrogenated oils should be made completely illegal.  Taxing them is not enough.  Simply knowing to eat less or having taxes causing that is not enough to be protective as it is with sugar.)

But to help move us back to most people having these treats 1 to 3 times a week or a month from 1 to 3 times a DAY that has caused such a surge in disease and health care costs it is slowing and harming our economy, we not only need taxes on soft drinks and sugars and other sweeteners – we need taxes with teeth!  (A soft drink that costs $1.19 for a 12 ounce serving now would cost $1.31 with a penny an ounce tax.)

Yes, it may take starting with a penny an ounce tax on soft drinks.  But their harm is such that the tax needed is closer to ten times that! (At ten cents an ounce, a soft drink that costs $1.19 for a 12 ounce serving now would cost $$2.39.)

3.  The key is helping voters find out that their huge real costs for health care could go down quite a bit instead of continuing to go up by endorsing taxes on soft drinks and sugars and other sweeteners.

And, teaching most voters how harmful these things really are and that in terms of reality, these things were never used or used so much by anyone until 50 to 100 year ago would also help.

Here’s a key fact.  Eating sugary foods and foods made with refined grains directly boosts triglycerides. And, just like eating hydrogenated oils, doing that is heart attack starter.  Work at Harvard found that when triglycerides go up, so does the tiny small particle LDL that causes heart disease. 

This is the exact same effect as eating hydrogenated oils!  The difference is that if you eat sugary foods and foods made with refined grains a lot less, it doesn’t build up and keep doing this all the time. Hydrogenated oils keep causing harm because they build up. 

So the solution is to ban hydrogenated oils and tax sugary foods and foods made with refined grains – starting with taxes on soft drinks and sugars and other sweeteners.

Sugary foods and foods made with refined grains also tend to cause you to get fat, get type 2 diabetes, and some cancers if you eat them way too much – in ADDITION to giving you heart disease.  That’s why we need the taxes so badly and why they should soon be high.