Sugar Should be Taxed
PRO (4 arguments)
Definitions:
Sugar- refined sugar
Grabbers:
1) “The magnitude of the health benefits from a sugar tax are projected to be greatest for African Americans, Mexican Americans and those with limited incomes, populations with the highest rates of diabetes and sugar consumption in California,” Huffington Post writer Holly Robinson said.
2) Nearly 34 percent, or 75 million, Americans are obese, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The growing obesity rate has led to high cholesterol, and an increase in chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and cancer. The goal of the tax is to curb sales of unhealthy food and decrease over-consumption, which will help to prevent disease.
Using the San Francisco sugar tax as an example of where money from such a tax would end up, 40 percent to the San Francisco Unified School District. 25 percent to the Department of Public Health and the Public Utilities Commission. 25 percent to the Recreation and Parks Department, of which 15 percent would be set aside for allocation to community-based organizations, 10 percent to be allocated through the Department of Public Health to fund grants for community-based organizations. This would serve as a model for most sugar taxes that would be implemented. San Francsico estimates a sugar tax would generate upwards of $50 million — money the city plans to steer into programs to cut hunger, increase access to healthier foods, and pay for more teachers in schools. Effective campaigns in better health have been shown to cost .22 per resident, or in New York $4 million out of a potential $423 million in tax revenue from a sugar tax. There are also some clear cost benefits to preventative education as opposed to have to take care of problems after: a campaign reaching 200,000 people would cost about the same as 1 coronary bypass operation.
According to Huffington Post, a proposed sugar tax would save about $620 million in medical costs in just one city the size of San Francisco. This money saved is just for one city. Judge, if we factor in all the cities around the United States, the money saved is staggering- in the billions. The study also predicted a 0.5 to 1 percent drop in incident coronary heart disease cases and a 0.5 to 0.9 percent drop in total myocardial infractions resulting from a sugar tax, yielding an additional $14 million to $27 million savings. The study authors from the Huffington Post wrote. “These findings suggest that reductions in sugar consumption as might be achieved from proposed taxes could have a marked population-wide health benefit for California and have the additional benefit of reducing race/ethnic and income disparities in diabetes and heart disease.” Researchers projected $13 billion in new annual tax revenues and, importantly, a $17 billion savings in health care costs over 10 years. In the United States, studies estimated direct medical costs related to obesity as high as $147 billion for 2008,12 representing 9.1% of total annual medical spending. On average, an obese person incurs 42% more in medical costs than someone of normal weight, with the majority of these costs covering treatment of obesity-induced diseases.14 One study estimates that “Medicare and Medicaid spending would be 8.5 percent and 11.8 percent lower, respectively, in the absence of obesity.”15 Given current national, state, and local budgetary constraints, the tremendous medical costs caused by obesity and borne by taxpayers are a significant cause for concern in the United States.
Judge, on January 1st, 2015, the first sugar tax in the United States was administered in Berkeley, with an overwhelming 75% vote. In San Francisco, the sugar tax received 54% of the vote. More major cities around the country have already addressed their support for this tax, and many other countries around the world have a working sugar tax. The sugar tax is already proven to successfully complete its job; in Mexico sugar consumption has dropped 10% in the year since the sugar tax has been activated. A study from the University of Wisconsin shows that soda taxes work much better than expected. It’s not as if the working class has anything to fear from this tax, says a study from the University of Illinois, because this tax will result in a net job gain. For example, a poll of New York residents found that 52% supported a soda tax, but the number rose to 72% when respondents were told that the revenue would be used for obesity prevention.
A 2012 paper in the journal Nature, brought forth the idea that limitations and warnings should be placed on sugar similar to warnings we see on alcohol. The authors showed evidence that fructose and glucose in excess can have a toxic effect on the liver as the metabolism of ethanol -- the alcohol contained in alcoholic beverages had similarities to the metabolic pathways that fructose took. Further, sugar increased the risk for several of the same chronic conditions that alcohol was responsible for. A 2013 study by the Huffington Post found that liver damage could occur even without excess calories or weight gain. Also, a 2013 study estimated that 180,000 deaths worldwide may be attributed to sweetened beverage consumption. The United States alone accounted for 25,000 deaths in 2010. The authors summarize that deaths occurred due to the association with sugar-sweetened beverages and chronic disease risk such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer.A 2009 study found a positive relationship between glucose consumption and the aging of our cells. Aging of the cells consequently can be the cause of something as simple as wrinkles to something as dire as chronic disease. But there is other alarming evidence that sugar may affect the aging of your brain as well. A 2012 study found that excess sugar consumption was linked to deficiencies in memory and overall cognitive health. A 2009 study in rats showed similar findings. A study by Huffington Post predicted a 0.5 to 1 percent drop in incident coronary heart disease cases and a 0.5 to 0.9 percent drop in total myocardial infarctions resulting from a sugar tax. The sugar tax would also lower obesity rates by 3.5% in a city such as San Francisco, or 23,000 fewer people with obesity. A new University of California study offers these projections: A tax on sugar would prevent nearly 2.4 million cases of diabetes, 95,000 cases of heart disease, 8,000 strokes and 26,000 premature deaths in the next decade. Robert Lustig, professor at the University of Southern California, says, “The UN Secretary General, declared that non-communicable disease — that is, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease — is a bigger threat to the entire world, developed and developing, than is infectious disease.” He tells us that these diseases kill 35 million people every year. He says that there are 30 per cent more obese people in the world than undernourished people. In 2011, there were 366 million diabetics in the world — more than double the number in 1980, and 5 per cent of the population. In the US, by 2030 this figure might be as high as 33 per cent. With a sugar tax, that number would significantly be lowered, Robert Lustig states. In the United States, 68% of adults and 31.7% of children and adolescents are currently either overweight or obese. The average American consumes more than double American Heart Association’s recommendation—some 365 calories per day, according to the Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service.