A family on a tight budget has no need to purchased 12 pudding cups for 2 bucks. Even these people aren’t eating pudding for dinner. If anything they’re eating Ramen Noodles for dinner for $0.12 a piece. The pudding is a luxury for them… as is soda and all other forms of junk food. If you discourage the purchasing of junk food through taxation and use the increased funds to lower the price of fruits and veggies you will begin to see a small shift towards healthy foods as luxuries rather than the latter.

They need to start with removing all the subsidies on meat, dairy, and corn!

But I believe the mantra the media has done a good job of bombarding us with “eat healthy! eat organic! eat grass-fed! eat local!” The problem is, many Americans don’t have those options nearby or can’t afford it. Healthy eating education only makes one depressed if one can’t act on it. And I say this knowing that the only available grocery in our city (which has no competition) is priced higher than high-end Whole Foods (according to Consumer Reports). Sometimes just affording groceries is the first challenge of the day.

I definitely agree that the cheaper cost will help everyone. I would really appreciate it. I just don’t think it’s the complete answer. We need cheaper prices AND education.

I think the “let’s tax the fat people on the junk food” idea isn’t coming from those on food stamps or limited budgets.

We live in one of the most expensive states for groceries and have little in the way of farmer’s markets. We only have a little patio to grow a few tomatoes. When I do a breakdown of what produce costs us ($5.50/12 apples vs. $2.00/12 pudding packs) and a budget stretched to its limits, produce is often an expensive treat for us.

Raising the cost of junk will only put many poor families in deeper debt. Offering fresh produce at a lower cost will help everyone.