Zambia urged to introduce fat tax on junk foods

The Zambian government should introduce a fat tax on junk foods and carbonated drinks in order to improve nutrition, an organization involved in promoting good nutrition said in a statement seen on Monday.

A fat tax is a tax or surcharge placed upon fattening foods, beverages or on overweight individuals and is meant to discourage unhealthy diets that are linked to obesity.

Civil Society Organizations for Scaling Up Nutrition Alliance (CSO-SUN) said the country was increasingly recording a rise in non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and cancer due to high junk food consumption.

"It might prove difficult to regulate the sale of fast foods. CSO-SUN has therefore in the past and currently, been advocating a fat tax which would encourage consumers to choose the healthier options," Mwandwe Chileshe, the organization's advocacy and communications officer said in the statement.

A fat tax would make unhealthy foods a lot more expensive which would in turn promote the consumption of healthy diets, she added.

According to her, food habits and nutrition choices were the major underlying factors causing the increase in non-communicable diseases, adding that 23 percent of women of child bearing age in Zambia were obese, according to the Zambia Demographic Health Survey.

The government, she said, should start to recognize the role the food choices play in forming people's nutrition status.

She noted that foods with high saturated fats and high sugar content, included but not limited to carbonated drinks and deep fried foods, usually in the form of fast food, have little to zero nutritional value.

"Most of the essential sugars and fats that our body needs are present in our daily diet. Invisible sugar, for instance, comes from fruit and fats from cooking oil, meat, eggs and nuts,' she said. Endit