Most of us know that unhealthy diet and sedentary increases the risk of everything from obesity to cancer and cardiovascular disease. Most people also know exactly what we should eat less – and more of.
But it turns out time and time again that it is difficult to make these healthy choices. To influence us against new habits, various attempts have been made around the world. In several countries, for example, a special sugar tax has been tested. But despite the fact that consumption has then decreased, the effect on public health is difficult to demonstrate.
Difficult to stop
In the UK, several attempts have been made to limit the range of fast food restaurants near schools, but the fight against powerful companies has been tricky. A review, published in The magazine BMJ, Shows that, among other things, McDonalds has run legal processes with arguments such as that there are healthy choices such as salad on the menus, or that visitors can walk to the restaurant.
In a new report, researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, the Swedish University of Agriculture and Karolinska Institutet are now proposing a new method – food tax exchange.
If it becomes more expensive with unhealthy products and cheaper with healthy, it will affect people’s choices, says Liselotte Schäfer Elinder, professor of public health science at Karolinska Institutet and one of the report authors.
Introducing excise taxes on, for example, sugar has previously been shown to hit above all low -income groups. But by introducing a broad tax exchange, where the VAT is removed on healthy foods and the tax is increased on unhealthy, it will be a zero -sum game for the consumer, the researchers believe.
Cheaper whole grains
Examples of goods that the researchers think could be taxed higher than today are sugary drinks and processed meat. For fruits, vegetables and legumes, the VAT would be completely removed, as well as for keyhole -labeled breads and grains.
Introducing restrictions on certain companies such as fast food chains to establish themselves, like the trials in the UK, does not believe Liselotte Schäfer Elinder is a viable path.
I do not think that it is the society we want with such limitations. What drives the sale of unhealthy food is a profit interest and if we use financial instruments properly, we can influence people’s choices, she says.
Facts: Living habits and instruments
Recently, the Public Health Authority and the National Food Agency came up with proposals to the government on how to make it easier for children and young people to make healthy food choices. This includes, for example, regulation of advertising for children and young people up to 18 years and limitation of which foods may be sold at, for example, swimming pools.
The purpose of the report, which comes from the research program Mistra Sustainable Consumption, is to analyze tax changes that would result in profits for both public health and the climate without beating the consumer economy.