Denmark's "fat tax" targets butter, burgers

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(CBS/AP) A fatty cheeseburger may take a toll on your health, but if you live in Denmark, it's also about to take a toll on your wallet.

Pictures: Fat tax? 15 states with biggest obesity bills

Denmark has imposed a "fat tax" on fatty foods in an effort to convince Danes to eat healthier. The tax is a complex one, in which rates will correspond with the percentage of fat in a product. The value of the tax is about $3.00 for every 2.2 pounds of saturated fat.

For example, a burger will increase in price by about $0.15, and a small package of butter could cost around $0.40 more under the new plan.

The tax was approved by large majority in a parliament in March as a move to help increase the average life expectancy of Danes - which has fallen below the international average of 79 years - by three years over the next 10 years.

Other European countries, including Denmark, have higher fees on sugar and soft drinks, but Linnet Juul, food director at Denmark's Confederation of Industries said he believes Denmark is the first country in the world to tax fatty foods.

"Higher fees on sugar, fat and tobacco is an important step on the way toward a higher average life expectancy in Denmark," health minister Jakob Axel Nielsen said when he first introduced the idea in 2009, because "saturated fats can cause cardiovascular disease and cancer."

Some Danes are skeptical the tax will succeed. Mathias Buch Jensen, of Copenhagen, told The Guardian that "Danes are big fans of butter."

"Knowing the Danes, it could have the opposite effect," Buch Jensen said. "Like naughty children, when they are told not to do something, they do it even more."

But would a "fat tax" work in the U.S.? Dr. Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University, told CBS News in an email that a tax like this would be "impossible" to pass in the States.

"We can't even get a tax passed on sugary beverages, which ought to be an easy target," she told CBS News.

Nestle also questions the importance of saturated fat for lowering heart disease risk, which "remains to be proven." But she thinks if the tax's goal were to prevent skyrocketing obesity rates, then taxes should be imposed on other major sources of calories - like grain-based or dairy desserts, alcoholic beverages, pizza and pasta dishes, sodas.

Said Nestle, "I'm for imposing the highest possible taxes on companies that market sugary drinks in general and junk foods to kids in particular."

Would a fat tax force you to eat healthier? Or have the health police run amok in Denmark?

16 Photos

Fat tax? 15 states with biggest obesity bills

[jeff1080]

how long till we realize we are livestock? eat the slave masters. i want to bite back.

[magnumdr]

People have to start minding their own buisness and leave others alone here in USA. We could also have a perfume tax because some of it stinks. Why not tax people who don't fit into society as some people think that everyone should.

[bmgeo416]

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[foo8259]

1st lets be perfectly clear on this: if you are going to "sin tax" something make darn sure it's truly unhealthful like sugar or grain. Saturated fats, animal fats are healthful -- that's supported by the latest research. Man evolved eating meats and fat. There are no essential carbohydrates humans need to eat. It's not the burger that gives you heart disease -- it's the bun! The liver can make all of the small amounts of sugar we need daily from protein, and ketones from fats provide plentiful energy. Show me the research that shows sugar, starch and even margarine are healthy?

[ucs0208]

In the US there's no need for such taxes. All the government would have to do is to stop subsidize corn production with billions of dollars every year. That would make corn a lot more expensive, which in turn would lead to a dramatic increase of cost for pretty much all unhealthy food choices.
Almost all processed food contains at least one corn based ingredient, most contain several. Soda is cheap because corn syrup is cheap. Tripple the price on corn syrup and soda will cost at least twice -> people will drink water instead.
Meat will be more expensive - a lot more expensive. People would then start eating much cheaper veggies instead of the over 200lbs of meat the average american eats a year.

Get rid of government subsidies for unhealthy ingredients and you'll curb the obesity epidemic.

[Kawliga7]

Tax the food to make sure we eat right, tax books and TV programs to make sure we read & watch the correct material and programs, tax everything that isn't what the government & scientists want you to do, see, or eat. Put a ring thru your nose so you can be lead around to do what you're told.

[SuperSageUSA]

Oh no another tax...

The Democrats are drooling.

Which is another reason we find ourselves in the OBAMA DEPRESSION...

[displeased2]

I thought it was because we cut our tax revenue while funding two wars. So it's acceptable to borrow money from China so we can destroy and rebuild other nations?

[SuperSageUSA]

by displeased2 October 3, 2011 3:43 PM EDT
I thought it was because we cut our tax revenue

Gee did I miss the Democratic control house and senate since 2007... Since they really control spending and then guess what we get a Democrat President and you know what...

We're in the OBAMA DEPRESSION....

[boehhher]

No, but a grain tax would. Leave the healthy animal fats alone, unless of course you're TRYING to give everyone heart disease and diabetes. Oh wait, of course we are otherwise big Pharma would get nothing.

[dagrandma]

We'd be better off with an adzehole tax. There are more of them than fat people.

[tsigili]

It won't succeed in Denmark.......much less the US.