Researchers at the University of Buffalo, New York established that decreasing the taxes on healthy food products might not solve the purpose of reducing obesity.
But if unhealthy foods come with raised prices and taxes, people may automatically shift to healthier options.
Lead researcher and psychologist, Leonard Epstein, University of Buffalo said, “Some states are beginning to impose ‘sin taxes’ on fat and sugar to dissuade people from eating junk food, while others favor subsidies over punitive taxes as a way to encourage people to eat fruits, vegetables and whole grains.”
According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one-third of youngsters in America over 20 years of age and one in five American children aged six to 19 are obese.
Details of the study
The research team studied the behavior of 42 mothers when they were made to choose between healthy and unhealthy food options at a supermarket model with an amount of 22 dollars for their purchases.
The options available at the virtual market were replicas of original products and included 30 healthy food items and 30 items on the junk food list, ranging from bananas to whole wheat bread, cola drinks to cookies along with juices, skim milk, and water.
The women were made to shop five times for a week’s food products. In the first turn, the costs of all items were equal to those in a local store.
The second and the third time, the prices of nutritional foods with lesser calories were reduced.
In the last two visits, the prices of unhealthy food items and beverages were hiked.
Results of the study
It was found that 10 percent tax on unhealthy foods led the subjects to buy 14.4 percent lesser fatty and sugary food items, thus enabling them to purchase 6.5 percent fewer calories overall.
Therefore, researchers concluded that increasing junk food prices was beneficial to persuade women to buy foods with lower calories, than slashing prices of healthy foods like broccoli, yoghurt, grapes, eggs, and fish which indeed led them to buy calorific foods.
“It appears that mothers took the money they saved on subsidized fruits and vegetables and treated the family to less healthy alternatives, such as chips and soda pop,” said the study authors.
The study appears in the journal of Association for Psychological Science.
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