Friday, November 1, 2013

Mexico: Junk Food Tax Is Approved

1. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/01/world/americas/mexico-junk-food-tax-is-approved.html?ref=todayspaper

2. category: health

3. level: national

4. This article concerns: Reducing unhealthy consumption habits, Mexico's Congress on Thursday approved new taxes on sugary drinks and junk food.

5. How this affects families/individuals: This affects people in a good way whether they think so or not. Putting taxes on this bad and unhealthy foods will make people think twice about their purchase and could resort to people wanting to eat other foods, or healthier foods.

6. My input: I think that this a great idea on Mexico's part. Almost 70 percent of Mexican's are overweight and a lot in which are obese. Seeing that these numbers are substantially high putting taxes on these sugary and unhealthy foods is relevant because clearly these people need to eat healthier and make better choices on what they are choosing to eat. Their goal is to try to lower those numbers on overweight and obese people, I think by passing this law it can make a pretty big difference. Most people who typically make these purchases often probably wont be too happy about this new law passing, but they have to understand that this is all for the better and to try to help them out in not being overweight and most importantly their health. As Americans I think that it wouldnt have too much of an impact in doing that here just because I think that people would pay the extra how ever many cents because they are going to want what they want for the most part. But, in somewhere like Mexico there are a lot more impoverished people and they most likely would rather save as much as they can which is why I think passing this tax will be effective there. Hopefully people in Mexico will start making better food choices just because it looks bad on their part knowing more than half of their country is overweight, plus in helping out their health issues as well. Hopefully this makes people not want to eat these unhealthy foods and realize that junk food isnt worth having bad health problems and will either go to healthier foods or at least cut down on the bad foods that they are buying or wanting to buy.

1 comment:

  1. I definitely agree with you on the topic. This is an awesome way to help people realize that it is not necessary to eat as much junk food as they think they do. People care about price and by adding a tax to junk foods and sodas peoples wallets will surely feel the impact from the tax. Obesity and diabetes caused by eating habits is a huge increasing issue all across the continent. The best way to bring awareness to the people is to make it impact them so much that they want to do something about it. The Mexican citizens will have an option to buy the more pricey junk food or the better healthier alternatives. I feel that most people purchase junk foods because they are seemingly cheaper. This tax could help people to realize that the price should not always dictate their decisions. Since junk foods and healthy foods will be more similar in price, it would give people more of a reason to choose the healthy choice. The new tax will probably not make anyone happy, but I think it is a good step in the right direction to help those citizens live longer, healthier lives.

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