I see that various "health experts" have been recently rather vocal about the "need" for a "fat tax", ie a tax on food that Nanny believes is bad for us.
Seemingly, according to the "experts", if we do not stop eating the "wrong" kind of food 46% of us will be "obese" by 2030. Seemingly the NHS will fall apart caring for so many fat people...errmmmm....are we also not warned that the NHS will fall apart caring for the increased elderly population?
So what is it to be, die fat and young or live skinny and old? Either way the state seems to loath us!
Ho Hum! moving on, may I therefore ask what exactly the "wrong" sort of food is?
Let's assume it is food that contains fat, salt, sugar etc.
Most foods, in some form or other, contain traces of at least one of the above. Therefore are we to see a tax imposed by the state on all food?
Ker Farking Ching!
Failing that, would it be only on food that the "elite" don't eat (eg the fried chicken type of fast food)?
As ever Nanny is missing the rather obvious point, the food itself is not evil but it is the quantities consumed and the sedentary lifestyle of the consumers of that food that causes weight/health problems.
Therefore, taking this to its logical conclusion, why tax all of us for the indulgences of others? Instead of taxing the food, why not simply tax people who are obese (a variation of the poll tax)?
Needless to say, there then comes the tricky question, who exactly defines what obesity actually is?
Given that many of our politicians are rather portly, they are not really in the best position to tell us that we are fat!
Better still, why not simply let us get on with our lives in peace!
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We, as a specise, are hard wired to seek salt, fat and sugar. In nature, these compounds are rarely in large quantities in natural foods. The problem we have, especially in the UK, is that we rely too much on processed foods and, in my opinion, this is because of the rise in the power of the large supermarkets.
ReplyDeleteYou can go into a supermarket and buy a so called ready meal for a few coppers but the ingrdients list reads like a chemistry set.
If you want to buy fresh veg and meat or fish, the cost is extortinate and thus, the poor are pushed towards the processed crap that contain high levels of trans fats, salt, sugar and other cheap chemicals that act as preservatives, flavour enhancers, and, as in the case of MSG, gets people addicted to such crap.
Many moons ago now, I made a conscious decision to cook from fresh and to avoid processed crap but it is very hard to do so; even a simple loaf has compounds added to it and has had since the wartime government set out the recipe for the national loaf. All commercial bread has, effectively chalk, added to it.
I think in the future, people will see how their lives are being dictated by the supermarkets and Nanny and will start to resist it. I hope people will continue to use their smaller shops that specialise in one food area such as butchers, bakers, delis, green grocers and fishmongers because, if we don't, even more of these shops will go out of business and we'll have even less choice than we do now.
The real problem for many people, is that financies dictate where they have to buy their food from; Tescos; Nanny's favourite grocer, will sell two chickens for five pounds and many people, especially the young that have never known any difference, assume wrongly that chicken is chicken and that it is a good healthy meat however, often these cheap birds are pumped full of chemicals, including water, and have been raised in alien conditions to their needs.
It is hard to convince a poor woman trying to feed a large family to not buy the two for a fiver chickens and buy an organic freerange one at a farmer's market for twelve quid.
I advocate to anyone that will listen, that it is better to eat less quantity but to eat better quality.
I suspect that this whole idea of a fat tax is yet another wizzard wheeze by Nanny and chums to grab cash from us already over taxed, long suffering members of the public.