The Futility of Taxing Foods to Achieve Social Change

Lazy Intellects and Food Zealots

We have endured the monstrous regime of the feminazis.  We continue to labour under the monstrous regime of the foodnazis.  There are those who wish to command and control all that we put in our mouths--for our own good--and, of course, society's good, since the state pays for health care.  And we are facing a plague of illnesses, about to descend with more deadly intent than the Bubonic Plague.  Obesity, diabetes, heart disease: this evil triumvirate must be combated with taxes, rules, regulations, controls, bans and government sponsored cotton-wool. 

One biggie is the cost of fast food--you know, that fatty stuff sold in burger bars and fish 'n chip shops.  What's wrong here, you ask.  Well, it's too cheap the foodnazis tell us.  It is being bought and consumed by the truckloads because it is cheaper than decent food.  Coke is cheaper than milk.  So, let's force the price upwards. Let's tax it.  The new-left command and control economists tell us that if you tax something, you get less of it.  Let's put a tax on sugar saturated drinks.

Such moves would hit the poor obese, forcing them to consume something better, argue the zealots
.  It would force them to be righteous and holy and eat better.  Actually, it would do nothing of the sort.  True, the poor obese would find it harder to pay for their daily food.  They would show up in income statistics as being increasingly unable to feed themselves.  The poor in New Zealand would get poorer; more people would be classified as below the "breadline", unable to afford food.  Pressures would, therefore,  mount on the government of the day to increase the minimum wage and welfare payments so that the poor could afford the now more expensive food.  Governments would legislate Canute-like for higher wages and welfare payouts.  And so the cycle of descent into national recession would commence once again. 

As is so often the case, the poor obese (we generalise) are arguably recipients and earners of too much money as it is.  They spend it unwisely.  They like the taste and the convenience of fast foods and fizzy drinks. If they were poorer, necessity, being the mother of invention, might force them to eat more healthy food, instead of junk stuff. 

It turns out that healthy food and eating is much less expensive than fast food junk.  The latter is a luxury that only the relatively wealthy can afford.  Richard Meadows does the sums in an article in Stuff:

It's not our fault we're obese. Potato chips are cheaper than apples. Coke is cheaper than milk. Fruit and veggies are unaffordable. The Government must act! That's the tone of a slew of opinion pieces which have popped up in recent weeks, calling for everything from subsidies for fruit and veggies to taxes on sugar and fat.

But the underlying premise - that it's cheaper to stuff your face with fizzy drink and KFC than to cook healthy meals - is simply wrong. Takeaway food is convenient, delicious - and generally very expensive. With a bit of knowhow and a dash of common sense, you can spend at least two to three times less with a frugal but healthy diet. . . .

Breakfast
There's a reason they feed oats to horses - they're incredibly affordable, and packed with energy.  "Oats with some low fat milk is a perfectly great breakfast - it doesn't have to be an expensive breakfast cereal," says Healthy Food Guide nutritionist Claire Turnbull.  A big bag of oatmeal costs 15c per serving, while a cup of milk is another 35c. All up, that's breakfast sorted for 50c.

Want to splash out on a cooked meal? It'll still cost you less than a dollar.  Eggs, which are a great protein source, are roughly 30c each, while wholemeal bread is about 15c a slice. Two eggs plus two slices equals 90c.  How does fast food stack up? The cheapest possible pie - with roughly the same protein, but more fat and calories - is $2. . . .

Lunch
The midday meal should contain some protein, but that doesn't necessarily mean meat.  "Things like lentils, kidney beans and chickpeas, which are a great source of protein and fibre, are really cheap," says Turnbull.  You need to eat a range of vegetable-based proteins to get the goodies you need, but that's simple enough.  Mix a grain with a legume - say, a wholemeal peanut butter sandwich - and you're set.

One hundred grams of lentils contains a whopping 26 grams of protein, along with at least 12 micronutrients - and costs just 70c. Add some brown rice - also insanely cheap at about 10c per serve - and you're on track for a filling meal.. . .

Healthy lunch: $2
Fast food lunch: $7 (Big Mac and fries)

Dinner
According to [AUT professor of nutrition Elaine] Rush, dinner should be a quarter carbohydrates, a quarter protein, and half different-coloured vegetables. ''That's the ideal for the proportions of your plate, and your shopping basket,'' she says.

Protein is the most expensive, so we'll tackle that first. Whether it's chicken breast on special, cheap fish, mince, BBQ steak, or stewing cuts of meat, you should be able to pick something up for about $10 a kilo.  Rush did an analysis on the cost per gram of protein a few years ago. ''Mince actually came out on top - it beat Kentucky Fried,'' she says.


Eating meat is affordable, says Dale Folland, a nutritionist and director of Newlives Nutrition.
''The problem is, we overeat,'' he says. ''You may have your average male eating 200g, 250g of protein [in a meal]. That's when it gets expensive, when you're eating more than you need to.'' He says 100g to 130g of meat or other protein is about right for a woman's evening meal, while men should take in 100g to 170g, depending on size.

That's a cost of about $1 to $1.70 per meal.  Add another 50c or so for veggies, and another 50c for a serving of carbs, like  potatoes or pasta. All up we're talking less than $3 - or $4 if you allow wriggle room for a bit of flavour and variety.
Healthy dinner: $3-$4
Fast food dinner: $9.90 (KFC quarter pack). . . .


MYTH BUSTED
If you add up the three meals, snacks, and drinks, the artery-clogging convenience diet costs $20 at the bare minimum - and probably a whole lot more.  A bare-basics healthy diet with a bit of leeway costs more like $7 to $9, roughly two to three times cheaper.  No matter how you nitpick the numbers, it's hard to keep arguing that healthy food is prohibitively expensive. . . .