Would a fat tax save lives?
In the fight against obesity, suggestions to increase nutrition education, remove soft drinks from schools, change how companies can advertise, ban trans fats and subsidize healthy foods are all common. But there’s one potential tool you may not have heard of, though it’s been discussed for more than a decade. A June 2007 study suggests that a “fat tax” — placing a tax on fatty or unhealthy foods — might save thousands of lives and reduce health care costs. Also called the Twinkie tax, the fat tax concept was pioneered by Kelly D. Brownell, a professor of psychology at Yale University, who wrote about it in the New York Times in 1994. Dr. Brownell outlined two proposals, the first of which suggested a 7 percent to 10 percent tax on unhealthy foods. The tax revenue would then subsidize the sale of healthy f
