As a plussie, I’ve long accepted the reality of a fat tax: I do have to pay more for basic clothing, from T-shirts to panties. A plus garment requires about 20% more material – but does NOT take 20% more time to sew. So my gauge for an acceptable markup on a plus garment in the face of comparable garments is 15-20%; anything over that I consider flagrant overcharge. That’s something that is physically attributable to myself.



I had no idea there was a literal fat tax on the table in the UK. While shot down by Tony Blair as too much of a “nanny state” approach, it is – pardon the pun – food for thought. The foods that are targeted – butters, cheese, and other high fat items – do contribute to health risk when individuals use them immoderately, and taxation may help instill some moderation.



While I do think what we do to our own bodies alone should not be a concern of the government (smoking affects the health of others, which is why I do not include it in this), I do think that such an experiment as a fat tax could help those who are already plus, not in modifying their behavior, but in effectively resolving stereotypes about who is “fat” and what “fat” people eat – if the sales of fatty items are reduced, but the number of plussy people is not, it could go a ways in opening up further avenues of genuine inquiry in what causes people to be larger. There are, of course, additional studies that would have to be done, demonstrating whether or not plussies were abstaining from unhealthy foods in direct correlation with the tax hike.



That said, I do not think taxing food choices is a necessary solution, and it fails to step back and look at culture as a whole. For starters, those who cook at home tend to make healthier food choices in part because they have more time to plan meals and think about what they eat. Restaurants are selling for flavor – nutrition is not a consideration, in part because restaurants serve food to entertain, not just to feed.



Much of the rising BMI index is more directly attributed to people eating out more because of mental exhaustion from work, and from companies with increasingly insistent demands that their employees give up more and more of their personal time to corporations with cancerous profit models (shareholders who only want to see things go “up” without consideration of the long-term damage that does to the people making it happen for them). Although it would be an interesting experiment to place a tax on the fattier foods, I think that addressing other areas of lifestyle besides food choices would go a lot further in improving overall health in the west.