A sugar tax could reduce America’s obesity
- Oct 28, 2016
- 2 min read
The World Health Organization , the public health agency of the United Nations, reports that more than half a billion of the world’s adults are now obese. In the United States alone, The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 34 percent of men and 38 percent of women are obese.
This opinion article was originally featured in PantherNOW and discusses the possibility of a sugar tax helping reduce the U.S. average obesity rate.
Check out the article’s excerpt below and click the link if you want to read the full story!
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Maytinee Kramer/Staff Writer
The World Health Organization , the public health agency of the United Nations, reports that more than half a billion of the world’s adults are now obese. In the United States alone, The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 34 percent of men and 38 percent of women are obese.
Because obesity is such a huge epidemic, governments should implement a tax on sugary drinks in the range of 20 percent to 50 percent, just as the WHO recommended.
Obesity is abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that may impair health, and is defined as having a body mass index of 30 or above. It‘s associated with many different health risks, namely an increased risk of heart disease, which is the leading cause of death in the U.S.
An estimated 442 million people live with the chronic disease, which caused 1.5 million deaths in 2012 and more than 76,488 Americans died of diabetes in 2014.
WHO officials say that consumption of added sugar is the root of these ills, and this includes not just table sugar but honey, syrups and fruit juice concentrates added into processed foods.
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Photo Credit: Flickr
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