Milkshake Tax

Tipetoo said:

I used to drink milkshakes in the UK, I never got "obese" either.

Perhaps it was because I used to get outside a lot, fishing, playing competitive sports, walk to school till I got a second hand bike given to me, fat chance of being a lounge lizard as the tv was not allowed to be turned on till my dad got home from work.

Tax the parents of obese kids, and leave the shakes alone...

Edit: typo

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Well, here on this forum, if someone said ‘tax the obese’ there would be outcry.
Especially when so many T2s are obese because of the insulin resistance they have, not because they are eating any differently than the non-obese.
So why is it OK to shift the blame onto parents? Especially when those parents are probably also insulin resistant, and making food choices based on the same cultural, social, economic and media pressures that everyone else makes?

Children who have insulin resistance are (like adults) less likely to want to play sports. Whereas those without insulin resistance are not likely to get obese in the first place.
They are now the third? fourth? generation brought up with increasingly processed foods, dietary misinformation, and growing insulin resistance. Might as well blame the grandparents, or the great grandparents. After all, they are the ones who listened to Ancel Keys and transformed farming and food manufacture towards the current trends - and they taught their children to be less active and eat the modern way.

Just tinkering around the edges. Just truthfully educate everyone without bias.

The research I have done shows even high whole food carb sources with similar quality fats and protein have population benefits, the minute added sugar is parachuted in (with flour and oil), the results speak for themselves.

I'd prefer to see them put a sugar tax on the producers of any foods or drinks with unnecessary added sugar (in any form). Anyone who wants sweet can add their own sweetener in whatever form they choose. But I suppose no-one would (except maybe us?) would buy the stuff then...

Robbity

Lol
We've had a tax on non essential food for over 20 years n it doesn't stop ppl from buying it at all.

Brunneria said:

Children who have insulin resistance are (like adults) less likely to want to play sports. Whereas those without insulin resistance are not likely to get obese in the first place.

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I still play sport twice a week, I am not competitive as I was, but I still get out into the fresh air exercising playing lawn bowls. My sons still play sport as well.

Listlad said:

It is fairly newly developed.

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Not all gloom and doom then?

Nyxks said:

Lol
We've had a tax on non essential food for over 20 years n it doesn't stop ppl from buying it at all.

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True.

Food and drink for human consumption is usually zero-rated but some items are always standard-rated. These include catering, alcoholic drinks, confectionery, crisps and savoury snacks, hot food, sports drinks, hot takeaways, ice cream, soft drinks and mineral water.
Restaurants must always charge VAT on everything eaten either on their premises or in communal areas designated for their customers to use, such as shared tables in a shopping centre or airport food courts.
In addition, restaurants and takeaway vendors must charge VAT on all hot takeaways and home deliveries, but don’t need to charge VAT on cold takeaway food unless it’s to be eaten in a designated area.
Certain animals, animal feeding products, plants and seeds also qualify for the zero-rate, but only if the conditions in the following VAT Notices are met, however products packaged as pet food are standard rated.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/rates-of-vat-on-different-goods-and-services

The best way to make sure many of the kids don't get obese* is never to educate them into thinking sweet=treat. I used to adore sweet things and it took a long time to get myself to the point where I really, really don't like the taste of sweet stuff. Sugar has a filthy undertaste that lingers and sweeteners are worse.

Years ago I read John Yudkin's ahead of its time book - Pure, White & Deadly - and it had the effect of making me instantly cut down my sugar intake. Brilliant book - he was vilified, ridiculed and ostracised by the academic community as a result of it, but of course is now fully vindicated.

If sugars weren't added to foods - or sweeteners - then we'd get kids liking food for its own flavour. Of course, that wouldn't suit Big Food because the kids probably wouldn't like the muck pumped out as treats at the moment.

ETA * I realise the situation is different for the insulin resistant, but a lot of non-IR would benefit.