Solution to Obesity: Calorie tax

[JEDI]

charge a 20% tax for anything over 1000 calories.

super large bag of chips (portion = 7 chips @ 70 calories per portion. 50 portions per bag)
mega big-gulp drink
chicken and bacon in a cream sauce in a chain restaurant
burger/fries/drink value meal
etc

yes you can buy burger, fries, and drink separately w/o the fat tax kicking in.
but if the restaurant sells it as a package, it kicks in.


The most important thing:
Use the tax $ to educate consumers about obestity, such as free nutrition classes. Don't just throw it into the general fund.

 

[nehalem256]

Even a 2 liter of pepsi has less than 1000 calories.

yes you can buy burger, fries, and drink separately w/o the fat tax kicking in.
but if the restaurant sells it as a package, it kicks in.

Seems like you found the gaping hole in your "solution"

 

[brycejones]

So if I buy a side a beef I have to pay a 20% tax because it contains more than 1000 calories?

Interesting idea, but not one I support.

#1 you wouldn't be able to keep the tax out of the general fund at some point someone will reallocate it.
#2 It sounds simple but implementation would be a bitch. We buy food in bulk not to eat like pigs but to save money. Its the only way to buy food for a family of 6.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Won't do a thing. "Education" is pointless, unless it's aimed not at consumers but at the institutions which encourage it AND the punishment/rewards are directed at their MANAGEMENT.

 

[Incorruptible]

Yes! Surely another tax should fix the problem! People should be responsible for their choices and having the government take care of them will only make it worse.

 

[rudder]

We also need a video game tax for all the young adults in their mom's basement playing CoD for 12 hours a day. $.54/hour

We need a tax for paying for HIV meds for all the people who like to hook up for random sex without condoms. $32.50/incident

We need a sunburn tax to pay for skin cancer treatments. No point in adding it to the cost of sunscreen because the fools with sunburn did not buy any. So maybe add it to Aloe Vera cream... $.85/bottle.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

We also need a video game tax for all the young adults in their mom's basement playing CoD for 12 hours a day. $.54/hour

We need a tax for paying for HIV meds for all the people who like to hook up for random sex without condoms. $32.50/incident

We need a sunburn tax to pay for skin cancer treatments. No point in adding it to the cost of sunscreen because the fools with sunburn did not buy any. So maybe add it to Aloe Vera cream... $.85/bottle.

How about a tax on partisans?

 

[Atomic Playboy]

We should just imprison fat people and force feed them... well, nothing, I guess. They can't leave until they're a respectable weight. We're going to need some bigger prisons though; those people take up a lot of space.

How dare someone live their life differently than me. Tax them or jail them!

 

[nehalem256]

How dare someone live their life differently than me. Tax them or jail them!

Actually its more like "How dare someone live their life in a way that is known to be stupid and then make me pick up the tab for their stupidity".

 

[Slew Foot]

dont qualify for insurance if youre bmi is over 30.


Cue all of the, but im 400 lbs because i lift!

 

[Moonbeam]

Actually its more like "How dare someone live their life in a way that is known to be stupid and then make me pick up the tab for their stupidity".

Thanks to a liberal belief in the value of free expression we who post here in P and N have to live with your stupidity every day. You are in fact so incredibly stupid that I have trouble believing you're real. I keep thinking somebody has sent you to wash you of pride by making you play the part of the biggest dunce that ever lived.

 

[z1ggy]

Wont work. Besides, when I buy my chicken in bulk (think 20 chicken breasts) that is over 1000cal. But it's high in protein, low in fat... Basically I'm not going to become a fattie by eating it. So why should I pay more?

Essentially you'd have to pick and choose which items would get taxed and which would not. Nice try though. At least you are trying to come up with a solution to a societal plague.

 

[diesbudt]

Actually its more like "How dare someone live their life in a way that is known to be stupid and then make me pick up the tab for their stupidity".

Less than 2% of medical costs in a persons annual payment is effected by obesity of this country. This is one of the bigger myths of insurances. (pun intended). In reality costs have many, many variables with some of the bigger ones being capitalism (companies work for a profit), uninsured people using the ER, lawsuits on medical companies, and location.

 

[diesbudt]

@OP There is also an issue with your idea.

Protein is a funny thing, it gives us close to 4.2 Kcal (4.2 calories per gram), however any excess that isn't used in the body is thrown out the via the waste system (also known as the intestines/rectum). Thus at some point any extra protein calories is not absorbed by the body. This is different compared to Fat 8.9 Kcal (8.9 caloeries per gram) and carbs 3.8-4.4 Kcal that any extra unburned by the body for energy, it is absorbed and stored as fat cells for energy if there comes a time you need it and you haven't ingested any recently.

So just plain calories wouldn't work at all.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Less than 2% of medical costs in a persons annual payment is effected by obesity of this country. This is one of the bigger myths of insurances. (pun intended). In reality costs have many, many variables with some of the bigger ones being capitalism (companies work for a profit), uninsured people using the ER, lawsuits on medical companies, and location.

The costs due to obesity related conditions is far far greater than that.

Here you go.

 

[Genx87]

So OP how fat are you?

 

[Atreus21]

I had an idea once to secretly sell healthy food from an otherwise unhealthy-sounding brand name like "Big Cheesy Beef" or something.

See if I could use the placebo effect to trick people into thinking that whole wheat buns on buffalo burgers with no mayo actually tastes good.

 

[werepossum]

We should just imprison fat people and force feed them... well, nothing, I guess. They can't leave until they're a respectable weight. We're going to need some bigger prisons though; those people take up a lot of space.

How dare someone live their life differently than me. Tax them or jail them!

LOL +1 Simple solution - make the dining room doors in these new prisons 14" wide.

The hatred the right bears against gays pales against the hate the left bears against smokers and fatties.

 

[sourn]

How about you take your sorry ass and move to N. Korea seems like you'd fit right in.

 

[nehalem256]

The hatred the right bears against gays pales against the hate the left bears against smokers and fatties.

Not sure you are correct there. Do you think that it is the left or right that complains about fat shaming?

 

[SociallyChallenged]

@OP There is also an issue with your idea.

Protein is a funny thing, it gives us close to 4.2 Kcal (4.2 calories per gram), however any excess that isn't used in the body is thrown out the via the waste system (also known as the intestines/rectum). Thus at some point any extra protein calories is not absorbed by the body. This is different compared to Fat 8.9 Kcal (8.9 caloeries per gram) and carbs 3.8-4.4 Kcal that any extra unburned by the body for energy, it is absorbed and stored as fat cells for energy if there comes a time you need it and you haven't ingested any recently.

So just plain calories wouldn't work at all.

I have no idea what physiology you've learned about, but you don't excrete/piss out protein when you can't utilize it for protein synthesis. Protein is broken down into amino acids. Amino acids are then absorbed within the small intestine. From there, the amino acids can go through thousands of different pathways. Granted, you do not have amino acid stores other than your skeletal muscle within your body. However, your body is efficient. You convert the amino acids that are unable to be used to synthesize proteins into glucose via gluconeogenesis. From there, it can be utilized as glucose to fuel your body or stored as glycogen. If you're full up on glycogen, then that glucose will be converted to Acetyl-CoA, which can then be converted to triglycerides and stored as fat. Acetyl-CoA can also be used to make other necessary compounds in the body that aren't energy producing.

Someone pointed this post out in the Health and Fitness forums and I responded as such. Do you really think we would have survived tens of thousands of years without being able to effective utilize energy? With your logic, we would have killed an antelope, eaten it, and pissed out our calories the same day. Wrong. You eat the antelope and every bit of the protein is utilized. What you describe is a severe protein wasting kidney pathology, which will likely result in death in a matter of weeks/months. Nobody actually works that way. Before you try to chime into a serious topic like this, please read up on the processes via reputable sources. Buy a textbook, be interested, but don't listen to everything you hear.

 

[werepossum]

I had an idea once to secretly sell healthy food from an otherwise unhealthy-sounding brand name like "Big Cheesy Beef" or something.

See if I could use the placebo effect to trick people into thinking that whole wheat buns on buffalo burgers with no mayo actually tastes good.

??? Buffalo burgers on whole wheat buns with mustard absolutely rule.

I do like that idea, but I fear that transfats and pink slime are far cheaper than, you know, actual food.

 

[boomerang]

The things people come up with when they have too much time on their hands...

 

[waggy]

really a idiotic idea. What about people who buy in bulk? they would be fucked eh? so what would be the point of continuing to buy in bulk? you wouldn't save money.

 

[werepossum]

Not sure you are correct there. Do you think that it is the left or right that complains about fat shaming?

Mostly it's the left who want government reforming fatties and the right saying leave them be. (Ironic since it's the right insisting government keep gays out of "decent society" and the left saying leave them be.) The right does sometimes get up in arms about fat people on welfare though.

I have no idea what physiology you've learned about, but you don't excrete/piss out protein when you can't utilize it for protein synthesis. Protein is broken down into amino acids. Amino acids are then absorbed within the small intestine. From there, the amino acids can go through thousands of different pathways. Granted, you do not have amino acid stores other than your skeletal muscle within your body. However, your body is efficient. You convert the amino acids that are unable to be used to synthesize proteins into glucose via gluconeogenesis. From there, it can be utilized as glucose to fuel your body or stored as glycogen. If you're full up on glycogen, then that glucose will be converted to Acetyl-CoA, which can then be converted to triglycerides and stored as fat. Acetyl-CoA can also be used to make other necessary compounds in the body that aren't energy producing.

Someone pointed this post out in the Health and Fitness forums and I responded as such. Do you really think we would have survived tens of thousands of years without being able to effective utilize energy? With your logic, we would have killed an antelope, eaten it, and pissed out our calories the same day. Wrong. You eat the antelope and every bit of the protein is utilized. What you describe is a severe protein wasting kidney pathology, which will likely result in death in a matter of weeks/months. Nobody actually works that way. Before you try to chime into a serious topic like this, please read up on the processes via reputable sources. Buy a textbook, be interested, but don't listen to everything you hear.

Thanks for the lesson.

Had a coworker whose wife had progressive liver failure and was unable to process protein. She had to be very, very careful on diet and take a liquid supplement (quarts each day) to avoid protein toxicity, which surprised me as I had no idea that protein could be toxic in normal doses. (Of course, that's just the way it was explained to me; she may well have totally misunderstood what she was avoiding. LOL)