Food taxes, subsidies major weapon in obesity war: study

Health-related taxes and subsidies on food could change eating habits and prevent thousands of early deaths in New Zealand, researchers said Thursday.

The researchers said they wanted to address gaps in existing evidence on food taxes and subsidies that had hindered their uptake in many countries.

The study by the universities of Auckland and Otago, in collaboration with Oxford University in Britain, tested economic policies in a computer model based on household food expenditure, demand in response to price changes, mortality rates, and known links between diet and disease risk factors.

"We found that taxes on unhealthy foods and subsidies on healthy foods, and a combination of the two, could prevent or postpone a considerable number of early deaths in New Zealand in the long-term," study leader Prof. Cliona Ni Mhurchu, of Auckland University, said in a statement.

The results showed a 20-percent subsidy on fruit and vegetables could prevent or postpone about 560 deaths each year, while a 20- percent tax on major sources of saturated fat could prevent or postpone 1,500 deaths a year.

The same tax on major sources of salt would see about 2,000 deaths prevented or postponed each year in the future.

A 20-percent tax on major food group contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, such as dairy, meat and poultry, could prevent 1, 200 deaths annually, while combining taxes on saturated fat and salt with a fruit and vegetable subsidy could prevent or postpone about 2,400 deaths each year.

"It would however take many years for these health gains to accrue due to delays between changing diets and changes in disease rates," Prof. Tony Blakely, of Otago University, said in the statement.

"Relative to other strategies to prevent obesity and diet- related disease, health-related food taxes and subsidies are likely to be highly cost effective."

In New Zealand almost a third of adults and one in 10 children were obese and poor diets and obesity combined account for more death and disability than tobacco smoking.

Obesity rates were highest among Pacific island (68 percent) and Maori (48 percent) adults, while those living in the most deprived areas were one and a half times more likely to be obese than those living in the least deprived areas.

However, the New Zealand Food and Grocery Council, a lobby group for the food industry, said introducing taxes on family staple foods such as bread, milk, eggs and meat was "lunacy."

"If these taxes were levied at a high enough rate and they did actually change behavior, they would do so only by making a huge part of the weekly grocery shop unaffordable for many New Zealand families, particularly our poorest," chief executive Katherine Rich said in a statement. Endi