What do you think about Patterson's Obesity tax?

[Brooklyns_Finest]

I just read his op ed on CNN about taxing sugar based drinks such as soda in NY. He sites the fact that child obesity and overall obesity in NY being a major health issue. I like the idea. I would also like the NYC schools to start taking physical education seriously. I think we should have some physical standards that kids need to meet at every grade level before they can move to the next grade. A strong body makes for a strong mind.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/12/18/paterson.obesity/index.html

[Dennis Donovan]

1. It's Paterson with one "t"

...and it's not an obesity tax - it's a tax to help foster healthy living, much like a tax on cigarettes.

[Deep13]

2. I have been suggesting that for years. nt

[flvegan]

3. Better phys ed, good start. Teaching parents nutrition, better start.

And hell no on the physical standards. Idiotic idea.

[Fumesucker]

26. In my experience phys ed was just an opportunity for the coaches to humiliate the "weaklings"

I'm sure it's not that way everywhere but, IMO, too many phys ed programs end up being used to elevate the jocks and punish those who are not as physically strong.

[aquart]

4. He's a fool not to tax diet soda as well. That stuff is poison.

[valerief]

8. Coca Cola and Pepsi are transitioning to Stevia and leaving the deadly artificial sweetners behind.

Not sure why, but I'm glad they are. Stevia is much healthier.

[Spectral Music]

25. I just read that sucralose (Splenda) began in a pesticide lab

"In 1975, at the Queen Elizabeth College
in London, Shashikant Phadnis, a
graduate student working with his advisor,
Leslie Hough was attempting to synthesize
novel insecticides based upon chlorinated
sugar molecules. Although the toxicity of
the chemicals with which they were dealing
was certainly well known to both of
them, puzzlingly, when asked by Hough to
test the compound, Phadnis misunderstood
and responded by tasting the compound
instead.

As one could probably guess, the compound
just so happened to be extremely
sweet. Phadnis and Hough worked together
with British sugar manufacturer
Tate & Lyle to create over a hundred chlorinated
sugars, eventually settling on the
compound we know today as sucralose as
the best-suited candidate for inclusion in
our food supply. (Note: many people have
noted that the very name given to this
sweetener, sucralose, is deceptively similar
to sucrose, or common table sugar implying
more of a relationship between these
two compounds than actually exists.).."

http://www.holisticmed.com/splenda/

Click on Sucralose Q & A: Setting the Record Straight (Part 1 of 2)

[TomInTib]

9. So true.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=4677256&mesg_id=4677319

Coca-Cola couldn't have been breaking even on on-campus sales. They were just raising the rate of consumption.

[mondo joe]

13. It's the high fructose corn syrup he ought to be taxing. NT

[Spectral Music]

24. So many of the studies on the safety of artificial sweetners are funded by the companies making them

http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/recent.html#1

"An analysis of peer reviewed medical literature using MEDLINE and other databases was conducted by Ralph G. Walton, MD, Chairman, The Center for Behavioral Medicine, Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine. Dr. Walton analyzed 164 studies which were felt to have relevance to human safety questions. Of those studies, 74 studies had aspartame industry-related sponsorship and 90 were funded without any industry money.

Of the 90 non-industry-sponsored studies, 83 (92%) identified one or more problems with aspartame. Of the 7 studies which did not find a problems, 6 of those studies were conducted by the FDA. Given that a number of FDA officials went to work for the aspartame industry immediately following approval (including the former FDA Commissioner), many consider these studies to be equivalent to industry-sponsored research.

Of the 74 aspartame industry-sponsored studies, all 74 (100%) claimed that no problems were found with aspartame. This is reminiscent of tobacco industry research where it is primarily the tobacco research which never finds problems with the product, but nearly all of the independent studies do find problems.

The 74 aspartame industry-sponsored studies are those which one inveriably sees cited in PR/news reports and reported by organizations funded by Monsanto/Benevia/NutraSweet (e.g., IFIC, ADA). These studies have severe design deficiencies which help to guarantee the "desired" outcomes."

[TomInTib]

5. We started a movement like that in Klein, Texas.

When a group of us demanded that the schools remove all drinks with corn syrup, we discovered that Coca-Cola was paying huge money to the Klein ISD to place their machines in the cafeterias.

I remember the amount being in excess of $1mil/yr.

[MarkInCA]

6. I thought that was struck down somewhere?

For some reason I seem to remember that some state found that to be unconsitutional when they tried to tax sodas & candy, maybe California?

I don't agree with it. I hate "punishment taxes".

[valerief]

7. It's more a HFCS tax than a Sugar tax. Very few sodas are made with sugar now. nt

[ProfessorGAC]

29. HFCS Is Sugar

Glucose, dextrose, fructose, maltose, sucrose, are all sugars. The "F" in HFCS is fructose.

It's not a matter of sugar or HFCS. It's a matter of sugar, or sugar.
GAC

[high density]

10. Maine just tried taxing soda

We voted against that big time after a lot of money was dumped in by the beverage industry.

Increasing the cost of soda is not going to make kids or their parents exercise more, and that's probably more of a problem than a few hundred calories a day from sugary drinks.

[JeanGrey]

11. I think it sucks, and sure, let's fail a smart kid because he's

FAT. The role that poverty, genetics and other factors play into this are being ignored.

This is the dumbest idea I've ever heard.

[CTyankee]

12. I'm all for it. I don't see it as "punishment" at all. These drinks are helping to increase obesity

and a lot of people don't know it. It's like cigarettes. We don't need them and they hurt us. Taxing isn't outlawing, it is a form of discouragement of a bad habit, like smoking.

If anything, the person who no longer drinks the sodas because of the cost factor is REWARDED, not punished. The reward is getting healthier. I don't see what's wrong withthat.

Increased taxes on cigarettes has helped reduce suffering and early cancer deaths in thousands of people. We should do it for sugared sodas too.

[RoadRage]

14. Eh.. i could take it or leave it

I'm not totally against it - something needs to be done about obesity (include the 20lbs I need to drop). But, at the same time - why fiscally punish the guy who runs 10 miles a day, and has a perfect BMI just because he likes to drink a coke now and again? KWIM?

A cigarette tax I understand - you're doing damage to yourself, and others. But - we all have to eat & drink.. and if you compensate for the extra 150 calories by taking a jog why be punished again on a tax?

I don't know what the right answer is, but i'm not sure that this is it.

[Brooklyns_Finest]

16. I doubt the guy who is running 10 miles a day is

drinking a whole lot of soda. Then again, some of the best PT "studs" that I knew in the Marines were serial smokers--go figure.

[RoadRage]

19. My little brother..

he's 6'4, 185lbs.. fire-fighter, and runs 5 - 10 miles a day. He drinks a coke here & there.. not a 12 pack a day or anything, but he does like his "real" soda. With his metabolism, he can drink it.. and he works out, eats right for the most part (far better then I do).

I'm just saying.. not everyone who drinks a regular soda is a fatty.. and not all (like me) who drink Diet are thin. ;)

[Johonny]

15. sin tax is generally not unusual

and is generally at least better than the banning of the sin, which has never worked

[guardian]

17. Too much big brother control over my life.

[tabbycat31]

18. soda is taxed in NY

at least it was when I was a resident. Drinks like soda had a sales tax on them.

[Rhiannon12866]

20. First heard this the other night on Letterman, but he got it mixed up.

He first said that they were raising taxes on diet soda, before he was corrected, and that made sense to me. Obesity is a serious problem, but people are more apt to gain weight by consuming drinks containing artificial sweeteners than those with sugar. I wouldn't touch the stuff... x(

And everything in moderation, rather than consuming chemicals... x(

[alittlelark]

21. Uh, that piece of you OP about grade advancement....

<snip> I think we should have some physical standards that kids need to meet at every grade level before they can move to the next grade.


That's a bureaucratic nightmare and a scary big brother thing..... Sure the kid writes papers on string theory, but he's 15 lbs overweight....

:crazy: :silly: :wtf:

[Spectral Music]

22. Actually, it's not a tax on obesity per se. Nonetheless, NOT THE TIME FOR NEW TAXES

The average household can ill afford it. Besides, a tax on sugar based drinks will lead to what? More use of Splenda (sucralose) or Equal (aspartame) based drinks? The latter is known to break down into Phenylalanine in the brain. As for sucralose, it is said that there are no known health risks, but after 8 years of GW Bush and a crippled FDA, there is the possibility that the relevant studies have not yet been done.

As bad as sugar is, we know what it is and what it does. I fear that diet sodas, filled with aspartame and sucralose, will be considered the "healthy" alternative. They will also be cheaper.

[Sanctified]

23. Well in reality Government never taxes because they want people not to do something.

They tax because it makes them money, if something is so bad for the population the Government should ban it instead of taxing and profiting off of it.

[Fumesucker]

27. Alcohol is provably bad for the population, I think we ought to ban it..

Why don't we see how that works out? :eyes:

[depakid]

28. No problem with that- same deal as taxing alcohol or tobacco

though I'm sure the libertarians around disagree.

[earth mom]

30. What bullshit. Next they will be taxing all of us to breathe.

:puke:

[Vinca]

31. I would be enthusiastic about the tax if the money was used

to fund universal, single payer, health care. I would also tax booze and smokes.