Weighing the Facts on the Sin Tax: Why a Tax Increase Won't Curb Obesity

PR Log (Press Release) – Oct 23, 2009 – These days, it seems like every time you turn around, another policymaker is espousing the view that a tax on “unhealthy” soft drinks or food will solve the country’s obesity epidemic. The Senate Finance Committee is pushing for what it calls a “lifestyle tax” -- better known as the sin tax which would impose new taxes on soft drinks and drinks containing sugar and high fructose corn syrup in an effort to slow the sale of unhealthy products that they deem “play a role in obesity.” However, according to Marilyn Ann Migliore, a Nutritionist and Psychotherapist at the University of Michigan and founder and author of “The Hunger Within,” a medically-based treatment program for compulsive eaters, “placing a ‘sin tax’ on food is a punitive attempt at restricting food intake. It is treating the symptom and not the cause of the obesity epidemic.”

While the idea of such food and beverage taxes has been floating around for years, the tightened state and federal budgets and rising healthcare costs due to obesity related illnesses have breathed new life into this idea. There is no doubt that obesity and its associated health problems have a significant economic impact on the U.S. health care system. In fact, according to a study by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), overweight and obesity medical expenses accounted for $147 billion dollars of the total U.S. medical. However, the answer to solving this crisis does not lie in increased taxes of “unhealthy food,” because, according to Migliore, “Food is not the issue. It’s the repetitive nature of our compulsive behaviors when it comes to the interplay of food and feelings. There needs to be a shift in thinking away from ‘what’ people are eating and instead we need to focus on ‘why’ people are turning to food to self-regulate their mood.”

Over the past 30 years, Marilyn has helped thousands shed light on and examine their problematic relationship with food, the missing link in the treatment of obesity, so they can finally put this struggle to rest. “What I’ve learned is that these folks understand that they need to burn more calories than they take in to lose weight. They know that exercise is good for them. They are not struggling due to an educational deficiency. It’s knowing the answers and not acting on them. That’s what makes them feel so desperate,” said Migliore.  

Marilyn’s program “The Hunger Within,” uncovers the mental and emotional “root-cause reasons” that fuel and drive compulsive eating behaviors. “By placing a tax on soda, we are sinking further into our own vicious cycle of symptomatic treatment, and are doing nothing to break the cycle of obesity.”