One way to stem the rising rates of obesity may be to mimic the successful approach used to decrease smoking: taxes.
A laboratory experiment conducted in the University at Buffalo’s Division of Behavioral Medicine showed that lowering the price of healthy foods did not result in “shoppers” improving the nutritional content of the foods they purchased.
But when the researchers increased the price of foods such as hot dogs, potato chips and Ritz Bits Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers by adding a 12.5 percent to 25 percent tax, the shoppers reduced purchases of these foods and spent a larger portion of their budget on healthier choices like bananas, tuna, and chicken noodle soup.
Results of the study appear in the current issue of the journal Psychological Science.
“Taxing high-calorie-for-nutrient [HCFN] foods had the dual benefit of reducing purchases of these foods while increasing purchases of low-calorie-for-nutrient foods [LCFN] with lower energy density,” says the study’s first author Leonard Epstein, Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics and head of the Division of Behavioral Medicine.
“From a public-policy standpoint, this strategy had the additional benefit of generating significant tax revenue. If policymakers aim to reduce consumption of HCFN foods to control rising rates of obesity, then taxing these foods may be more effective than subsidizing LCFN foods.
“In our experiment, a tax that increased the price of foods by 12.5 percent reduced the total calories purchased by 6.5 percent,” adds Epstein. “This resulted in a 12.8 percent reduction in fat calories and a 6.2 percent reduction in calories from carbohydrates.”
The study involved 42 lean and overweight mothers, divided 20-to-22 between those with family incomes below and above $50,000 per year, respectively. The laboratory was set up to simulate a grocery store. Cards with pictures of more-healthy and less-healthy food and beverage items were arranged in sections according to food category, and prices and nutrient values were printed on the cards.
Posted by Lois Baker-Buffalo
March 2, 2010
Source: University at Buffalo
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Food-borne Illnesses in U.S. Cost $152B Annually
Report urges Congress to pass vigorous food-safety legislation
Food-borne illnesses cost the United States an estimated $152 billion each year in health-related expenses, much more than previously thought, a new report contends.
"These costs are significantly more than previous official estimates, and it demonstrates the serious burden that food-borne illness places on society," Sandra Eskin, director of the Food Safety Campaign at the Pew Charitable Trusts in Washington, D.C., said during a Tuesday press conference.
These health-related costs include physician services, hospital services, medicines and also quality-of-life losses, such as deaths, pain, suffering and disability.
Every year, an estimated 76 million Americans are sickened by contaminated food and 5,000 of these people die, according to federal statistics.
Although most of these of costs are due to unidentified germs, infections from well-known pathogens play a large role. For example, costs related to campylobacter exceed $18.8 billion annually; costs linked to salmonella are estimated at $14.6 billion; and costs related to listeria are $8.8 billion, according to the report.
The majority of food-borne illnesses are caused by produce, which are regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Thirty-nine percent of E. coli outbreaks were due to produce regulated by the FDA, the report said.
According to the report, California, Texas, New York, Florida and Pennsylvania have the highest costs related to food-borne illness, ranging from $6.7 billion to $18.6 billion each year.
The report was based on federal government sources using the same statistical methods used by the FDA, report author Robert L. Scharff, an assistant professor in the Department of Consumer Sciences at Ohio State University, said during the teleconference.
"The 'costs' of food-borne illness can be measured in millions of cases of suffering, and thousands of deaths each year in the U.S.," said Dr. David Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine. "Frankly, that has always been enough to convince me we should be doing more to address this problem. But if it hasn't convinced you, maybe the price tag in a more conventional currency will: more than $150 billion a year."
Eskin hopes the report will spur Congress to pass a food-safety bill that with strengthen the FDA's food-safety efforts by giving the agency more authority over the foods it regulates and more money to devote to making the food supply safer.
President Barack Obama last year created the Food Safety Working Group. "We are still waiting for Congress to pass a comprehensive food safety law," Eskin said, adding that the House of Representatives passed a food-safety bill in July, but the Senate has yet to act.
For more on food-borne illness, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
By Steven Reinberg
March 3, 2010
Source: BusinessWeek
Food-borne illnesses cost the United States an estimated $152 billion each year in health-related expenses, much more than previously thought, a new report contends.
"These costs are significantly more than previous official estimates, and it demonstrates the serious burden that food-borne illness places on society," Sandra Eskin, director of the Food Safety Campaign at the Pew Charitable Trusts in Washington, D.C., said during a Tuesday press conference.
These health-related costs include physician services, hospital services, medicines and also quality-of-life losses, such as deaths, pain, suffering and disability.
Every year, an estimated 76 million Americans are sickened by contaminated food and 5,000 of these people die, according to federal statistics.
Although most of these of costs are due to unidentified germs, infections from well-known pathogens play a large role. For example, costs related to campylobacter exceed $18.8 billion annually; costs linked to salmonella are estimated at $14.6 billion; and costs related to listeria are $8.8 billion, according to the report.
The majority of food-borne illnesses are caused by produce, which are regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Thirty-nine percent of E. coli outbreaks were due to produce regulated by the FDA, the report said.
According to the report, California, Texas, New York, Florida and Pennsylvania have the highest costs related to food-borne illness, ranging from $6.7 billion to $18.6 billion each year.
The report was based on federal government sources using the same statistical methods used by the FDA, report author Robert L. Scharff, an assistant professor in the Department of Consumer Sciences at Ohio State University, said during the teleconference.
"The 'costs' of food-borne illness can be measured in millions of cases of suffering, and thousands of deaths each year in the U.S.," said Dr. David Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine. "Frankly, that has always been enough to convince me we should be doing more to address this problem. But if it hasn't convinced you, maybe the price tag in a more conventional currency will: more than $150 billion a year."
Eskin hopes the report will spur Congress to pass a food-safety bill that with strengthen the FDA's food-safety efforts by giving the agency more authority over the foods it regulates and more money to devote to making the food supply safer.
President Barack Obama last year created the Food Safety Working Group. "We are still waiting for Congress to pass a comprehensive food safety law," Eskin said, adding that the House of Representatives passed a food-safety bill in July, but the Senate has yet to act.
For more on food-borne illness, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
By Steven Reinberg
March 3, 2010
Source: BusinessWeek
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