Health Education: cheap fattening foods

At the end of September, Denmark became the first country to levy a tax on fat.  Saturated fat that is - in foods.  I mentioned it here at the time, but was just able to explore it  today. The tax is a "certain amount of money on a certain measure of weight".  In Denmark this means that they are adding 16 kroner per kilo.  If this were in American money and weight, it would be about a dollar a pound.  OF course, most products don't have a pound of saturated fat (except maybe Blooming Onions and butter), so the tax is really ten or twenty cents more for whatever the product is.    It might have seemed a good idea at the time - imposed by the exiting government (imagine that) - but it is VERY complicated.  It applies to local and imported foods and requires importers to declare the amount of Sat Fat in their foods (which I thought ALL labels had to declare in the first place).  I suppose if someone is bringing in a truck of goods it could be tricky. Worse - unless they have a provision in the law that I am unaware of - healthy, heart protective, foods and oils like olive oil and (Smucker's all natural) peanut butter will ALSO go up in price.  For those two specific products the amount of monounsaturated or GOOD fat is six or seven times higher than the 2 gs of sat fat they contain, but they would cost more (now) in Denmark.  That would go directly against one of the goals of the DGAs (Dietary Guidelines for Americans).  I think that price differentials are very important but this wouldn't be the way I would go about it.  If I were to raise taxes - I would do it by class of food.  Really, I would prefer that we suspend or lower taxes on fresh fruits and vegetables as well as whole grain products - for a start.

The Denmark Tax

At the end of September, Denmark became the first country to levy a tax on fat. Saturated fat that is - in foods. I mentioned it here at t...

My classes start in less than a week and could prove quite challenging – Hence, today I take a break from heady research and talk about the special at Red Lobster Restaurant. Two people can dine for $29.99 which includes a choice of one of eight entrees, either a Cesar or garden salad, as many cheddar cheese biscuits as they’d like ( and MOM tells me they like ‘em plenty), and a choice of an appetizer or dessert – but just one to split between the two. WHY am I talking about this? It relates to my passions of obesity prevention and informed eating and thus it caught my attention. The promotion is advertised in the restaurant (point of purchase), on the <a href="http://www.redlobster.com/menus/">Internet</a> and on the TV. A full meal for fifteen dollars at a restaurant is not necessarily cheap but certainly inexpensive.  Two of the issues that come up in the obesity discourse are marketing (advertising) and cheap foods. To expand, the cheap food is often high in calories, low in nutrients, and marketed heavily and disproportionately to children. This “special” meets most of the criteria. I wanted to break down the meals to see just how many calories were packed into that 30 dollars. I have two sample meals, but first let me give you some numbers to ponder. The guests can choose one entrée each from a list of eight. The entrees range from 210 calories (tilapia) to 1260 calories (a pasta and meat dish). The fat grams are from 3 to 60. Can you imagine 60 grams of fat in one dish?! The average then is 625 calories and 29 grams of fat. There are only two options under 300 calories. The entrees come with broccoli and a side starch – unless it is a pasta dish. The broccoli has 45 calories, fries 330, plain potato 220, mashed 210 and rice 180. Each person gets a salad. A garden salad has 90 calories and a Cesar has 270 (cheese). The lowest dressing is 60 cals and the highest is 280 with an average of 170 for the salad dressing. A biscuit has 150 calories. I did not look into butter or any sauces. I did not look at beverages. All that would be EXTRA calories. There are three appetizers and three desserts from which the couple can choose only one. If they are looking at the appetizers, the shrimp cocktail is the clear winner at 120 cals. The cheese sticks are a scary 680, which make the 380 calorie stuffed mushrooms, look reasonable. The desserts range from 580 to 1490 calories. Yes, I said that one dessert (a chocolate something) has about 1500 calories – or the amount of calories many less active women need in a whole day. So I created two meals. The first is the lowest calorie choice from every category – with the appetizer or dessert at ½ the calories (a shared item). The second is the highest of everything, but again only half the dessert. The low meal gets one biscuit, the high gets two. No drinks or dipping sauces included. READY?? Best Case w/ ½ appetizer - 795 Best case w/ ½  dessert - 880 Worst Case w/ ½ appetizer - 2495 Worst case  w/ ½  dessert - 2900 My point is not to tell you what to eat. Just know what you are getting. I have no beef (ha) with Red Lobster. Their own website provided all the calorie and fat information and I can see that they have reduced some of the calories in the last couple of years.  I ate dinner at a Red Lobster last night. My meal was tilapia and broccoli without any oil, fat or butter and a garden salad (no croutons) and my own dressing. Add 95 calories for that deliciously ice cold Michelob Ultra. Oh, it was $17.50 before tip – supporting the notion that healthy costs more! If you go to Red Lobster in Bradenton Florida – say HI to my MOM for me.

30 dollars gets you 2 Grand

My classes start in less than a week and could prove quite challenging – Hence, today I take a break from heady research and talk about the ...

Health Education

The Denmark Tax

30 dollars gets you 2 Grand

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