BUSINESS NEWS
Tax junk food, obesity authority says
Posted Mon, 14 Aug 2006
Tax unhealthy fatty calorie laden fast foods and sugary soft drinks, an authority on obesity has said.
According to Professor Tess van der Merwe from the International Society for the Study of Obesity, such a tax will help to overcome South Africa's ever growing obesity problem.
Moreover, junk foods adverts should be banned or alternatively carry health warnings and should only be shown on TV at certain times of the day, she added.
The revenue raised from this should go to fund educational programmes that teach young people the benefits of healthy eating as well as a concerted media campaign, the professor said, who is described as the country's foremost authority on obesity.
When France imposed a similar tax on the sale of sweet alcoholic drinks, consumption dropped off by 40 per cent in the first year. "When the government was worried about cigarettes, it banned smoking in public places," she said. "Obesity is a major problem with 45 per cent of South
Africans carrying too much weight. "We need the government to legislate against unhealthy fast food and sugary soft drinks. Just as they did with cigarettes, marketing to children should be limited. I am continually amazed how advertisers are allowed to advertise foods laden with fats and kilojoules — foods that are killing us!
"Let the government show its commitment to us through legislation and imposing higher taxes on unhealthy fast foods — and also tighten nutritional labelling on foods. Van der Merwe was addressing 500 doctors, specials, surgeons and physicians at the SA Gastroenterology Congress in Port Elizabeth this week who gathered to focus on the causes, treatment and scientific and public awareness of obesity, classified as a disease since 1997. "Ten years ago, HIV Aids was in the same position as obesity is today," she said. "For the sake of the country's future, we can't let the matter of obesity slide like Aids did. Already nearly half of
us over the age of 15 are overweight. The government might soon have to move in to manage the epidemic and its most important consequence namely diabetes. She aims to change the idea of obesity being lifestyle-related disease could be solved by dieting and exercising and to make the pubic aware that morbidly obese people need medical help to lose weight and keep it off.
"We need the government to take control of this and at school level reinstate correct eating and physical training back into the curriculum. With our childhood obesity problem, it is hard to believe that schools allow vending machines with crisps, chocolates and fizzy drinks and a tuck shop with other unhealthy choices." She said she understood the motive of the school was to make a profit and that unhealthy hamburgers and hotdogs brought in money but it was a pity it was at the expense of the nation's health. The country's obesity rate has exploded because many rural people have drifted to the
cities and have adopted western eating habits. Fast food outlets have sprung up and people are eating more dense food and drinking liquid-based sugar while decreasing their exercise to watch TV or work on computers.
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