Should Food Containing High Fat and Sugar Be Taxed.

It has emerged that one in three people on the planet are fat bastards. The Lifestyle Police are urging Governments to tax foods with high sugar and fat content.
Should the case not be to educate the lard bellies rather than tax the healthy ones amongst us?
Or is it just an attempt to raise more revenue to piss up the wall by the folk in control?

Soul Kitchen wrote:
Or is it just an attempt to raise more revenue to piss up the wall by the folk in control?

This.

They're talking about bringing in a charge for attending A&E now to make hospitals more "economically sustainable."  I heard it on Five Live yesterday.

Here's an idea, if you've got an NHS hospital in your community, don't put "Jeremy" with his Business Studies & Finance degree in charge, try appointing a fucking doctor with some experience of being a clinician.

We've got a fantastic tradition of providing health care in this country which is free to the user at the point of delivery and funded 100% by direct taxation.

It's worked well enough for over 60 years and if we need to spend a bit less on fighting wars in Afghanistan to fund it, so be it.

And as Aneurin Bevan said in 1948 "no society can legitimately call itself civilised if a sick person is denied medical aid because of lack of means."


Fuck off, tories.

Soul Kitchen wrote:It has emerged that one in three people on the planet are fat bastards. The Lifestyle Police are urging Governments to tax foods with high sugar and fat content.
Should the case not be to educate the lard bellies rather than tax the healthy ones amongst us?
Or is it just an attempt to raise more revenue to piss up the wall by the folk in control?

There shouldn't be a tax as that is just penalising the two-thirds of people that aren't fat bastards. My body is a temple but even I enjoy a daily can of Pepsi and a Twirl.

No, a much better idea would be to limit what fat people can buy. Simply have a set of scales built into the floor of each supermarket checkout and if that person is above the threshold for being a fatty then he/she is only allowed to buy healthy food.

Trust me, the obesity problem would be over inside 2 years.

Apparently it's 32 per cent of the GPs surveyed that's come up with this for A & E. Apparently it's to counter act the effects of Saturday night pissheads. It's been said you'd get your money back if it was legit. FFS they can't collect funds off foreign tourists, etc. properly!!

Natasha Whittam wrote:

Soul Kitchen wrote:It has emerged that one in three people on the planet are fat bastards. The Lifestyle Police are urging Governments to tax foods with high sugar and fat content.
Should the case not be to educate the lard bellies rather than tax the healthy ones amongst us?
Or is it just an attempt to raise more revenue to piss up the wall by the folk in control?

There shouldn't be a tax as that is just penalising the two-thirds of people that aren't fat bastards. My body is a temple but even I enjoy a daily can of Pepsi and a Twirl.

No, a much better idea would be to limit what fat people can buy. Simply have a set of scales built into the floor of each supermarket checkout and if that person is above the threshold for being a fatty then he/she is only allowed to buy healthy food.

Trust me, the obesity problem would be over inside 2 years.

My bodies a temple as well!

Natasha Whittam wrote:

Soul Kitchen wrote:It has emerged that one in three people on the planet are fat bastards. The Lifestyle Police are urging Governments to tax foods with high sugar and fat content.
Should the case not be to educate the lard bellies rather than tax the healthy ones amongst us?
Or is it just an attempt to raise more revenue to piss up the wall by the folk in control?

There shouldn't be a tax as that is just penalising the two-thirds of people that aren't fat bastards. My body is a temple but even I enjoy a daily can of Pepsi and a Twirl.

No, a much better idea would be to limit what fat people can buy. Simply have a set of scales built into the floor of each supermarket checkout and if that person is above the threshold for being a fatty then he/she is only allowed to buy healthy food.

Trust me, the obesity problem would be over inside 2 years.

Fucking idiot.

I'm 6' 5" and weigh 19 stone and it's all muscle and bone.

Your genius plan would mean I could no longer buy Pot Noodles and shit, despite my having a BMI of 19.3 and being even fitter than David Ngog.

Stick to doing the ironing and let the grown-ups sort the serious issues.

Breadman wrote:
Fucking idiot.

I'm 6' 5" and weigh 19 stone and it's all muscle and bone.

Your genius plan would mean I could no longer buy Pot Noodles and shit, despite my having a BMI of 19.3 and being even fitter than David Ngog.

Stick to doing the ironing and let the grown-ups sort the serious issues.

You fat, in denial, twat.

Sorry to break it to you Breadman, but you are a fatty. Lay off the bread and pot noodles and perhaps one day you could have a sexy body like me.

I am NOT fat!

I am genuinely big-boned. 

They're huge, my bones.

And I can bench press almost 45 pounds.

(Or is it kilos? I always mix those two up - no, it's definitely pounds.)

Anyway, I never eat salad or veg because, if you think about it, making food green is nature's way of telling you not to eat it.

Leave a pie out in the sun and what happens? It goes all green and mouldy.

QED, I win.

This is a Michael Boltonesque post I'm afraid!?!

No, I'm not him either....ffs!

Breadman wrote:

And I can bench press almost 45 pounds.

(Or is it kilos? I always mix those two up - no, it's definitely pounds.)

You weak bastard. 45 pounds is about 20kg. I do a few bench presses to tone my wonky breasts and even I can lift 15kg and I only weigh 8.5 stone.

Tax high sugar content foods by all means. Sugar not fat is the problem. It won't happen though with the Tories in power. They abandoned plans to put cigarettes in plain wrappers and tax alcohol units due to pressure from their sponsors in big business.

xmiles wrote:Tax high sugar content foods by all means. Sugar not fat is the problem. It won't happen though with the Tories in power. They abandoned plans to put cigarettes in plain wrappers and tax alcohol units due to pressure from their sponsors in big business.

Good. People should be allowed to choose what they put into their bodies - if someone wants to be a fatty then let them get on with it.

All I would say is that treatment for fatty related diseases should not be available free on the NHS. Same for smoking related diseases.

If you train 5 days a week you can eat what you want really, if you don't train then just watch what you eat.

I have a great body , but i work hard without eating too much crap stuff, I'm going to start Beasting the running now because I'm feeling good.

Fuck off, tories.

Yes, Pandora's Box has opened nicely today!

What I don't understand, is why do we have to tax everyone in order to fix this problem. As I understand it, and I may be wrong, the decision was made some years ago, by American companies, to include large amounts of sugar, salt, and fat, in food, in order to bulk them out and make them more attractive to customers. A habit that is ongoing, by all big producers.
Rather than tax the ones who have to use the products, (we don't always have a choice), why can we not bring in effective rules to limit the amount of these harmful ingredients. Its been tried with some specific products before,( usually in line with a politician's time in office).
Until we stop thinking we can tax our way out of everything, it'll never be fixed. Charging or taxing more than is necessary for a product is just a small-minded way of implementing a denial of service, it wont work.

It's also a great way of raising revenue to piss up a wall as my original thread don't you think?

gloswhite wrote:What I don't understand, is why do we have to tax everyone in order to fix this problem. As I understand it, and I may be wrong, the decision was made some years ago, by American companies, to include large amounts of sugar, salt, and fat, in food, in order to bulk them out and make them more attractive to customers. A habit that is ongoing, by all big producers.
Rather than tax the ones who have to use the products, (we don't always have a choice), why can we not bring in effective rules to limit the amount of these harmful ingredients. Its been tried with some specific products before,( usually in line with a politician's time in office).
Until we stop thinking we can tax our way out of everything, it'll never be fixed. Charging or taxing more than is necessary for a product is just a small-minded way of implementing a denial of service, it wont work.

You are right about the history but I am not sure your solution is practical. To legislate for every food and drink would be impossible because there are too many different kinds and flavour is very complex. You can't simply say no foodstuff should have more than (say) 10% sugar because you would have to exempt all sugar products and some products won't work without a higher level of sweetness plus you then need to define exactly what is sugar (fruit and most root vegetables contain fructose which can be bad for you*).

Which is why I think the only practical way to deal with this is to tax certain high sugar products. The argument that this somehow penalises thin people is weak since thin people are almost inevitably consuming a lot less of these products than fat people.

*https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=9&cad=rja&ved=0CIIBEBYwCA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fauthoritynutrition.com%2Fwhy-is-fructose-bad-for-you%2F&ei=8wzIUtahI_LQ7AbTsIH4BQ&usg=AFQjCNEZ-Xtlz_tj1OEy2pypmx0bpXgcZg&sig2=G8LhW6YF-r9eR15YFrhjdA&bvm=bv.58187178,d.ZGU

It's all very "you behave yourself or I'll dock your pocket money".
It's pathetic and doesn't get to the rout cause of the problem anyway. It is an effective cash raiser though which is plainly the main idea behind it.