A Case for a Junk Food Tax

I, personally, do not need to read any one's research to convince me that raising the price on soda and sweets is a good idea. I enjoyed the economic scenario that was presented some time back by the NY Department of Health and appreciated that the tax, if nothing else, would be a great source of revenue. And YES it sounds like the cigarette tax because it is the same type of thing. Of course, like cigarettes, the first few years of the tax will bring in the most money, so good for the budget, but at the same time and over time, the result could be less money spent on those non nutritive items and ideally, obesity rates would decline.

But this week, there was another bit of news about the issue. A researcher from the University of Buffalo, Dr. Leonard Epstein, has completed at least a little experiment, but I am not finding any publication. Some of the major news outlets reported on it, but the University website does not have anything. (I did see that Dr. Epstein had a lot of published work regarding both obesity and tobacco. And he created the basis for the GoSlowWhoa programs, which I think are awesome)

Anyway, he and I imagine some of his research students, set up a very small study of 42 women who went "virtual" shopping. The stores they set up had pictures of items, not real items. They were given budgets and told to shop for the week as if there were no food at home. The grocery stores were then set up in a few different ways. One had the items all priced at current retail costs. In other words, the junk food cost what it cost and so did the healthier items, fruits, vegetables, yogurt, sugar free beverages, etc. Another scenario had the junk food prices the same as usual but the healthier items cheaper and another had the healthier items constant but the junk food items MORE. Only in the last scenario did the researchers see a change in behavior for the better. It appeared that when the shoppers saved money on the healthier food items, they used the extra cash to buy more junk food. (WHAT?!)

This is not a conclusive case for raising the junk food tax, but an interesting little study none the less.