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Comment by ghouse | Hacker News Reader

Perhaps the US tax code should stop subsidizing corn syrup and other processed food inputs. As it is now, the tax payers pay twice -- once for the subsidy, and then again for healthcare.

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Indeed. Also, why not do the same that worked before with big tobacco? Ban soft drink sport sponsorships. Ban advertisement of high sugar/hfcs foods to children. Add surgeon general notes to junk foods.

Health consequences are paid by the rest of society, in one way or another. Nurses say hospitals are filled with obese patients. It's getting out of control.

Or just add a calorie tax. That would pretty effectively do the trick. Would negligibly affect the cost of low-calorie-density food, but boy that soda and/or butter becomes expensive.

Real butter is quite healthy in moderation. And already expensive enough!

That'd be great way to establish a regressive tax. Luxury foods don't have more calories than cheap ones so as a percentage of cost cheap food prices would increase more. Not to mention that percentage of income spent on food for low income people is much higher than % of income spent on food by rich people.

Then add: a more aggressive earned income tax, a more generous child tax credit, or a guaranteed minimum income (or some kind of hybrid plan). If the problem is that some people can't afford things, attack that problem directly.

Legally guaranteeing that parents can put their 26-year-olds on their family healthcare plan is also regressive (it doesn't help uninsured families), but that didn't stop it from being enacted.

I always wonder how did alcohol get away with not having to put the calories in it. That would become quite more expensive as well.

Why blame it on the foods?

I'd rather have obese people paying a plus for healthcare.

There's not any reason to think corn and corn syrup are any worse than sugar or rice. Which is to say they're not really a problem at all. Corn syrup products are just tasty things that people with poor self control overeat.

What does appear to be an actual policy problem is polyunsaturated fats. Soy and canola oil accumulate in tissues and slow the metabolic rate, interfering with mitochondrial respiration. If you eat a lot of margarine and fried foods and ranch dressing, your resting metabolic rate will measurably decrease over time, leading to fat gain even with static calorie intake.

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