Decades of research has proven the effects on human health because of the consumption of fast food. In various countries, more and more people are suffering from health problems as a result of eating too much fast food. So, it could be necessary for governments to impose a higher tax on such foods. I completely agree with this opinion.
Making people pay a higher tax on such food discourages both the production and purchase of such goods. Even in our country, there is an increasing trend of going out for fast food, especially in big cities. While fast food restaurants may not be present throughout the country, packaged foods like instant noodles with no nutritional value are everywhere. We are one of the highest consumers of instant noodles in the world, second to South Korea. Couple of packets of instant noodles cost the same as a bunch of leafy green and because of convenience, people may opt for the former. If the taxes are made higher people may end up making healthier choices solely based on prices. This leads to a decrease in demand, making people hesitant to start a new fast food venture. And by taxing the businesses higher for such unhealthy foods, they might be encouraged to provide healthier products to the consumers.
Some may argue that the situation in our country is not close to Framing this as a concern of distant future. However, it is better to be safe than sorry. In the past few decades, the consumption of such food materials as a skyrocketed and taxing could be one of the means for slowing it down. Our lifestyle additionally has become more sedentary than ever, making health and issue of major concern. There is another concern about poor people having to end up starving due to cheap food becoming pricier. But we can counter this by using the tax money to invest in making healthy food more economic and accessible to the people.
Therefore, taxing fast food is great solution for reducing health problems of people, as it discourages people from over consumption of such food, and also discourages fast food companies, promoting locally grown healthy products.