If governments generally want to improve health they need to do to sugar
what they have done with tobacco successfully over the last 60 years or so.

My understanding is that in the USA bans and taxes aren't aligned with
freedom of choice, but there is an appetite for improved labelling. e.g.
clear warnings and pictures of fat people on soda pop bottles. Also
rotten teeth, and diseased livers.

The real health crisis is the metabolic one e.g. type 2 diabetes,
Alzheimer's, avoidable cancers, not COVID. With improved diet and
lifestyle my view is that expenditure on physical illness could get down
to 12% of GDP in western countries.

On 2022-01-20, Dave <dwickford@yahoo.com> wrote:
> If governments generally want to improve health they need to do to sugar
> what they have done with tobacco successfully over the last 60 years or so.
>
> My understanding is that in the USA bans and taxes aren't aligned with
> freedom of choice, but there is an appetite for improved labelling. e.g.
> clear warnings and pictures of fat people on soda pop bottles. Also
> rotten teeth, and diseased livers.
>
> The real health crisis is the metabolic one e.g. type 2 diabetes,
> Alzheimer's, avoidable cancers, not COVID. With improved diet and
> lifestyle my view is that expenditure on physical illness could get down
> to 12% of GDP in western countries.

I believe in freedom of choice but I also like having the NHS
unencumbered. My solution is for anything harmful - tobacco, sugar,
alcohol &c - to be taxed at a rate whereby those who consume them are
effectively paying for their treatment later in life.

On 21/01/2022 12:57 pm, Incubus wrote:

> On 2022-01-20, Dave <dwickford@yahoo.com> wrote:

>> If governments generally want to improve health they need to do to sugar
>> what they have done with tobacco successfully over the last 60 years or so.
>>
>> My understanding is that in the USA bans and taxes aren't aligned with
>> freedom of choice, but there is an appetite for improved labelling. e.g.
>> clear warnings and pictures of fat people on soda pop bottles. Also
>> rotten teeth, and diseased livers.
>>
>> The real health crisis is the metabolic one e.g. type 2 diabetes,
>> Alzheimer's, avoidable cancers, not COVID. With improved diet and
>> lifestyle my view is that expenditure on physical illness could get down
>> to 12% of GDP in western countries.
>
> I believe in freedom of choice but I also like having the NHS
> unencumbered. My solution is for anything harmful - tobacco, sugar,
> alcohol &c - to be taxed at a rate whereby those who consume them are
> effectively paying for their treatment later in life.

That's possibly already the case for alcohol and tobacco (in the UK, at
least).