Sugar Tax
Naru, Cook Islands, Palau,Marshall Islands,Tuvalu, Niue,Tonga,Samoa,Kiribati, Micronesia, Kuwait and The United States of America. This is a list of the twelve most obese nations on the planet in 2018.
The only people more obese than Amerians are those that live on tiny isolated island nations which rely on junk food as an alternative to expensive imported foods.
Nearly 78 million adults and 13 million children in the United States deal with the health and emotional effects of obesity every day.
According to the Center for Disease Control an average adult is 26 pounds heavier now than in the 1950’s.
For most of its history Mexico did not have a problem with obesity. After 1980 that changed dramatically. With the signing of NAFTA Mexican society underwent many changes. With the manufacturing of automobiles, a growing middle class and doors open to a flood of fast foods and sugary soft drinks from America, obesity grew rapidly. By 2010 one third of the population was clinically obese and by 2013 Mexico was on the list of obese nations in a higher position than that of the United States.
Alarmed by the widespread, debilitating health consequences resulting from high rates of sugar consumption, Mexico implemented a sugary drink tax in January 2014. Studies found that sugary beverage sales and consumption fell substantially. The biggest decreases was among low-income Mexicans, the group at the highest risk of obesity-related diseases.
Obesity is still a problem in Mexico as it is in almost every nation but in Mexico the overall rate is declining because the Mexican government has decided to do something about it.
A tax on sugary beverages would be unpopular. And the wealthy food and beverage industry would fight such move with great vigour. America can not impose such a tax.
Maybe one day Americans will wake up and realise; not only that they can but that they must.
