Sugar tax could solve obesity crisis: researchers

US researchers say they have found the solution to obesity-related disease: a sugar tax. Taxing sugar before it’s actually added to processed foods is one way to reduce the disease burden - and associated medical costs - of obesity in America, Cornell and Stanford university researchers claim.

“Nutrient-specific taxes could have an important effect in inducing healthier purchasing behaviour among consumers,” Cornell’s Michael Lovenheim and Stanford’s Matthew Harding wrote in a working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

As opposed to previous suggestions such as a fat tax or a soda tax, the researchers believe a tax on sugar would have the broadest positive effect because so many processed foods contain high levels of sugar. The consumption of fat and salt in sugary products would be collaterally reduced when consumers are faced with a sugar tax, the researchers claim.

According to their figures, a 20% tax on sugar would increase consumption by around 18%.

“Taxes on nutrients would do much more to support healthier nutritional choices than would taxes on products,” said Lovenheim, who is an associate professor of policy analysis and management at Cornell’s College of Human Ecology.

To prevent people avoiding the tax by shopping online, or shopping in the next state, the researchers recommend that the taxes be applied nationally.

“In a way, we’re already paying a ‘fat tax’ for eating unhealthy food and failing to exercise,” Lovenheim observed. “Obesity-related disease costs American taxpayers and healthcare consumers more than $147 billion a year.”