Her teacher admitted she has a tough argument to make. My niece went to the library and checked out two books. One was filled with arguments for and against the taxation. The other was filled with statistics, charts and graphs backing up those arguments. She was having difficulty making sense of how to defend not having a tax on junk food, thinking the tax would act as a deterrent.
Enter Aunt Amy.
As a woman who has been in recovery for decades for all sorts of addictions, I was able to help her by giving personal examples from my own experience with obesity. I told her how I gained fifty pounds between sixth and eighth grade because of the stress at home. She was surprised to hear about it.
Aside from my personal story, I gave her these to think about:
- Ask your class to raise their hand if they eat chocolate. Ask your class to raise their hand if they eat chips. Ask your class to raise their hand if they drink sugary sodas. Tell them at their age that's what they're usually doing and it's not abnormal. Many of them are still growing, are in sports so they're active and they go to parties with their friends. How would they feel if they were taxed on junk food that doesn't effect them yet?
- Obesity isn't always caused by junk food. Consider all the carbs available to us. Bread being the most eaten.
- Do you know why most poor people are obese? Fast food is usually cheaper than healthy foods. (My niece said)
- What about food pantries? They are well meaning but filled with carbs including lots of breads and desserts. Sometimes there are no limits for either. Fruits and vegetables are scarce. (My niece observed after serving at a local food pantry)
- Putting a higher tax on junk food is like increasing the tax on cigarettes. People who have a food addiction (where they eat instead of feeling their feelings) will pay the tax. People who smoke will find a way to keep getting their cigarettes.
- The higher tax does not have the person's well being in mind. If it did, the tax would go toward a treatment program and not into the state's budget.
- Not everyone with obesity has high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol or other ailments.
- Taxing junk food will punish people who are healthy and enjoy a little something extra to eat here and there.
- How will the tax be determined? Will it be by the type of junk food? And how will junk food be defined? Who will be making those decisions?
- Taxing junk food might sound good at first as the answer to America's obesity problem but let's be real. People are going to eat whatever they want to eat. Give them better choices and better comparisons. Bring down the price of produce. Make it more economical to buy bottled water rather than bottled soda. Change the economics and I bet obesity will decrease without an added tax.
Even though this is a fictional topic, it caused me to look at myself. I still have eighty pounds to lose. I told my niece if she wanted to interview me as an obese person, I'd be happy to help her in any way I can.
In the end, she thanked me for the help. She said she was really stuck and I totally opened her eyes to see how she can defend her argument.
God wants us to build into the next generation. I love my nephews and nieces. Whenever I can, I support them in extracurricular activities, one on one lunches, these type of conversations and whatever else He puts in front of me.
No matter what state of mind I'm in or what I'm struggling with, God gives me what I need to be able to build into them.
I love Him and I love them very much.
