Should We Tax Sodas and Junk Food to Pay for Health Care? Monday, August 03, 2009 by: Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor

(NaturalNews)

Mr. Johnson weighed nearly a ton.
And drank pop 'til his health came undone.
His kidneys turned blue
But he said, "I've got two."
"So I'll drink 'til I only lose one."

The debate over health care reform has run smack into a brick wall of economic reality. There's just not enough money to pay for all the disease in America, it seems, and now lawmakers are desperately searching for new sources that might bridge the financial gaps. Their latest scheme involves taxing sodas with a three-cent tax to raise an extra $24 billion over the next four years.

At first, taxing soda might seem like a good idea. Sodas, after all, promote diabetes, obesity, bone loss and many other costly health conditions. It only stands to reason that people who drink soda should pay a little more towards a national health care plan.

But there are problems with this idea of a soda tax. For starters, it's a highly regressive tax that ultimately gets paid mostly by low-income, low-education people (the kind of people who drink a lot of soda). It's a tax, in other words, on those who can least afford it.

Another problem with such a tax is that if the U.S. government is going to use taxes to modify consumer behavior, it would seem prudent to first end the government subsidies on sugar that have existed since World War II. Why are we still using taxpayer dollars to lower the price of sugar when refined white sugar contributes so much to our nation's health problems?

Then there's the question of where the money will go. Even if you slap a five-cent tax on every can of soda, does that money actually end up going towards improved health care, or is it just lost in the morass of bureaucratic incompetude that wanders the halls of Washington these days?

Case in point: The government settlement with Big Tobacco. All that tobacco money that was supposed to go to "improving health care" across America has actually ended up in the general budgets of most states, where it gets wasted on a thousand different things that have nothing to do with health care. A soda tax would likely end up being lost in the system in much the same way.

A better solution for influencing consumer behavior

Slapping new "sin taxes" on consumer products as a way to shape consumer behavior while raising money is a seductively attractive idea if you're a bureaucrat with an itchy trigger finger. It seems (at first, at least) economically and morally sound: Make the people who cause the problem pay more for fixing it. It all seems so simple: Let cigarette taxes pay for health care. Let soda taxes help fight obesity. Let alcohol taxes pay for alcohol addiction recovery centers. But in the real world, it never quite works that way: Money gets stolen away for other uses, rarely going to the intended beneficiary. Meanwhile, the taxes end up hurting those consumers who can least afford it.

A far better option is educating consumers about the harm these products cause. Put large, unambiguous warnings on cigarettes like, "SMOKING CAUSES CANCER" along with a horrifying picture of a diseased lung. On soda cans, you could require warnings like, "DRINKING SODA CAUSES KIDNEY STONES" along with a picture of a short, sweaty man holding his junk and screaming in pain.

You get the idea. Why waste all that time and effort collecting and distributing a five-cent soda tax when you can just use pictures and warning labels to influence consumer behavior?

Of course, using honest labels on harmful products doesn't raise money for bureaucrats to ferret away in their favorite pork projects, but it does accomplish something much more important: It reduces long-term health care costs by dissuading people from consuming harmful products.

Sure, it doesn't stop every ignorant teen from slamming colas while he becomes obese and diabetic, but it does have a positive influence on many. The sad truth is that most people who drink soda have no idea the phosphoric acid causes bone mineral loss and kidney stones. They have no clue that high-fructose corn syrup promotes diabetes and obesity. They just don't know about the harmful effects of drinking highly acidic liquid sugar beverages, and that's part of the reason why they keep drinking them.

In my opinion, large health warnings should be required on all sodas and junk food products. And they should be blunt: Soda causes diabetes. Donuts cause obesity and heart disease. Hot dogs cause cancer. The list goes on...

Such a proposal would horrify the corporate giants in the food and beverage industries, of course. Their sales depend on consumers staying ignorant about the ravaging health effects of their products. Requiring their labels to tell the truth would devastate their sales and profits. The processed food industry would suffer huge economic losses. So would the sick care industry as fewer people suffer degenerative disease. Lots of jobs would be lost as people avoided disease-promoting foods.

And that should be the ultimate goal: A huge downsizing of the junk food and sick care industries. The smaller they are, the better off the people are. Ultimately, we should strive to destroy the sick care industry altogether. The day Big Pharma's top corporations declare bankruptcy due to a lack of sales is the day we've achieved something meaningful for the health of our nation. And we're not going to get there by taxing sodas without telling people the truth about how sodas destroy their health.

Insulin Insensitivity

This issue is high on the list because it is so common—and it responds very well to nutritional therapy. It encompasses three conditions: metabolic syndrome (sometimes called syndrome X), adult onset diabetes and people who are insulin insensitive, but have not developed these conditions yet. Insulin has a lot to do with weight gain and so many other common health problems you see in your office. Sugar and insulin are involved with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high triglycerides, type 2 diabetes, menstrual problems, heart disease, pain, inflammation, depression and even polycystic ovaries. With simple lifestyle changes and some good nutritional products you can help people to easily lose weight and help them with a lot of other health problems. This is easy and it works.
Symptoms of insulin resistance include fatigue, weight gain, brain fog, carbohydrate craving, and periods of hypoglycemia after a high carbohydrate meal (often needing a nap after eating). Approximately 50% of your hypertensive patients are insulin insensitive. Approximately 30% of American adults are insulin insensitive and 25% have Syndrome X. The Journal of the American Medical Association states that if a patient has three or more of the following symptoms then Syndrome X is present.: waist measurement greater than 40” in men (35” in women); triglycerides greater than 150 mg/dl; HDL lower than 40 mg/dl; blood pressure greater than 135/85; or fasting glucose of 110 mg/dl.
Problems with sugar and insulin cause weight gain, along with a variety of other health problems. In general, these patients will have a BMI greater than 30. They carry weight around their abdominal area and crave sugar and starch. Getting insulin production under control is the key to weight loss—and there are some products that will help you to do this.
Dietary changes are, of course, necessary. Patients need to go on a low glycemic diet—avoiding high glycemic foods like refined carbohydrates. Have them follow a low glycemic diet; avoid refined foods, hydrogenated oils and additives. They should eat a large breakfast—with protein. They should eat a lot of fresh produce. You may have some problems with compliance—sugar is addictive. The supplementation should help with cravings. If patients have compliance issues, be patient but be firm in telling them that they need to change their habits. One of the keys to this is getting them to control when they eat (see the next paragraph). They should eat slowly and eat until they are full. They should only eat three meals per day.
Patients need to exercise regularly. They also need to stop snacking. The snacking issue is a tough one; many of these patients are labeled as hypoglycemic. Some feel weak or shaky if meals are delayed or feel the need to snack every two hours (or have been told to do so). You need to wean them from this by increasing the time between snacks. When you first eat, you produce insulin which helps to store the calories of the meal. As time goes on, you produce glucagon, which helps to burn the stored calories. The first three hours after eating, insulin is dominant; after three hours glucagon becomes dominant. You cannot lose weight if you keep producing insulin and snacking makes you produce insulin. It is especially important not to eat between dinner and bedtime.

The dietary changes are difficult, but necessary. Fortunately there are products that help to bring insulin under control and to help with cravings.

A multivitamin (designed for glycemic control): Many of the companies who sell to chiropractors sell a product that has a lot of chromium, B vitamins, magnesium and other nutrients to help the patient will glycemic control.
Fish oil: One of the many good things that fish oil does is to help with glycemic control; it also helps to lower cholesterol.
Phosphatidyl choline Works like a fat detergent; it also helps with adrenal issues. Many of your patients needing to lose weight have high cortisol production. Interesting side note—this is good for exercise-induced asthma (as is fish oil).
Phosphorus: Insulin insensitivity is an acidic condition; phosphates help to buffer. Phosphorus also helps with bone loss (a lot of osteoporotic women love their carbs). Sugar upsets the balance between calcium and phosphorus.
Magnesium: Magnesium is also nature’s muscle relaxer, so give it to patients with tight muscles. A woman who is magnesium deficient often will have tender breasts and mood swings related to her cycle. Magnesium causes the stools to soften, so if the patient gets diarrhea, lower the dosage.
Beta TCP or Betafood: Biotics and Standard Process are the only companies (I know of) that make a product like this. It is an extract from beets; it thins bile. Think of it as a detergent for fat (people with Syndrome X tend to get fatty liver).