Denmark's New Fat Tax

You may have heard the news that Denmark recently imposed a "fat tax" where they will be taxing foods which contain more than 2.3% saturated fat. That means a tax on every single food item that contains saturated fat, including meat and butter and milk. According to one article, the money raised will fund obesity-fighting measures. (For two British viewpoints check out this Guardian article and this Telegraph article.)

When I first heard about this, my initial thought was 'why Denmark?' Danish people tend to be pretty healthy in general. When I was there this summer I was talking about nutrition with our friend who is a doctor. I mentioned that the US had the 5-a-day campaign for fruits and vegetables - and she mentioned Denmark's 6-a-day suggestion. Cities around the US are just now starting to have bike sharing programs and hyping the importance of sharing the road with bikes. In Denmark you're hard pressed to find a street that doesn't have a bike lane and most towns have at least one enormous bike parking area complete with free air pumps for your tires. According to Telegraph article, less than 10% of Danes are obese. According to the CDC, 33.8% of American adults and 17% of American children are obese.

While there are likely a slew of political reasons why Denmark of all countries has decided to impose this tax, it feels a little bit like they're taking one for the team (the team in this case being all other countries that have an obesity issue). Other European countries are definitely taking note, and perhaps America should as well. I'm often frustrated by the fact that there doesn't seem to be one logical place to start solving this problem in the states (especially since a lot of unhealthy foods are subsidized by the government and backed by lobbyists). However, I think that taxing saturated fat would at least a more logical place to start than taxing soda as has been suggested by various people and publications. At least putting a tax on something like saturated fat indicates to the public that they should be consuming less of that specific nutrient. Picking a specific product like soda could send the message that as long as you're not drinking soda, you're being healthy. With processed foods full of chemical additives lining grocery store shelves, soda is just one of many products that people would be healthier living without.