This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Public policies to solve obesity crisis less important than education, economic growth
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
LAS VEGAS — Government should not play a role in solving the obesity epidemic through public policies, according to a presentation at the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) 23rd Annual Scientific and Clinical Congress in Las Vegas, Nevada.
With evidence that shows policies such as fat taxes and soda bans have trivial effects on body weight and little impact on health, Jayson L. Lusk, PhD, of the Department of Agricultural Economics at Oklahoma State University, said they are purely symbolic and impose costs on populations who can least afford them.
“All we’re really doing is replacing our judgments for what we want them to do with their own choices for what they themselves want to do,” Lusk said. “It’s a little hard to imagine how you make people better off by decreasing their income by increasing taxes.”
Jayson L. Lusk
Results from a study by Dharmasena and Capps showed a 20% tax on sodas would reduce weight by about 2 pounds. Another study by Okrent and Alston found a broad calorie tax (6.8% on grains; 2.7% on meat; 11% on eggs; 5% on fruits and vegetables) would reduce weight by about 5.5 pounds, and that vegetables subsidies would increase weight.
The economic research completed on studies of popular policies that have been proposed also showed they don’t have the consequences people want, Lusk explained. “Many times, they would fail a cost-benefit test.”
The self-control problems people have, often making choices based on their “hypothetical future selves over current acting selves,” especially when it comes to diet and food, is one main reason why such policies won’t work.
Lusk reasoned it’s more important for government to conduct scientific research, communicate that information and inform people of their risks.
“[You can] give people good information, let people know what the risks are, tell people what’s unhealthy based on the best scientific information,” Lusk said. “But in the end you need to let people live their own lives and make their own choices.”
Lusk also suggests that the government focus on encouraging people to invest in their economic health as well.
“We have to think of obesity as a symptom of poverty,” Lusk said. “You want to think about economic growth and development as underlying motivators for a lot of the adverse health consequences that we actually see.”
For More Information:
Lusk JL. FGS2. Presented at: AACE 23rd Annual Scientific & Clinical Congress; May 13-18, 2014; Las Vegas, Nevada.
Disclosures: Lusk reports that he has received speaker honoraria from Merck & Co., Inc.