Nowadays, junk food is everywhere and people are struggling in finding balance in their diet due to the addiction and low cost of this unhealthy food. Despite people becoming more and more concerned about healthy issues, the number of people consuming unhealthy food is increasing significantly and so are the consequences. To control and reduce unhealthy ingestions, some people believe the best way to achieve it is through adding taxes to food. By contrast, others support that this method of control will not be successful due to the fact that everyone will pay for it and it is needless.
Increasing the unhealthy food cost could benefit both, the ones having a balanced diet and the ones who do not. By adding taxes the government is not only addressing this matter seriously but also will be increasing their financial incomes. The earned money of the taxes could be used to reduce the cost of fruits and vegetables or organic food. Moreover, people will find it more economically attractive to purchase healthy food rather than groceries which lack nutrients.
However, if the government adds taxes to unhealthy food, it is not certain that the consequences of unbalanced diets will be reduced or eradicated at all. There are various ways of encouraging people to eat better and develop healthy habits without punishing certain types of food, such as healthy publicity or fitness events. Furthermore, taxing food will require a number of people to control and establish rigorous policies about what foods will be taxed and which ones not. Hence, that cost will be paid by all the citizens and not just for the ones having healthy issues.
In my opinion, besides adding taxes might be a solution to improve individuals’ health, it is not fair for other people to pay higher costs due to the unhealthy ones. Having a balanced diet is up to one, therefore, if people decide to have unhealthy habits, they should suffer the consequences by themselves.