Is junk food that bad for your health?

Everyone has eaten junk food at least once in their lives and most of the time we have thoroughly enjoyed it, but that doesn’t make it good for us, right? It is very clear that junk food and over-eating fatty foods are causing many health problems such as obesity and even as serious as type 2 diabetes. In the UK over a third of people are obese with 74% of adults and 31% of children being overweight or obese. So, if we put a tax on these junk foods, we could potentially prevent obesity and other health complications in children and adults and also hinder premature deaths.

Fatty foods are the biggest cause of obesity and obesity is a growing issue as a result of this. Not only will it have an impact on the individual but also on the society they live in as treatments for obesity-related illnesses cost the NHS £3.4 billion annually. Obesity can cause many health complications such as being too heavy to work, heart disease and even premature death. According to the daily mail, more people are dying in Britain due to being overweight or obese than anywhere else in Europe. Around one in every 11 deaths in the UK is now linked to carrying excess fat, 50% more than the rate in France. Experts also said that the number of deaths due to obesity might soon, for the first time, be higher than deaths caused by smoking. Therefore, if the government puts a tax on fatty foods and drinks, they will be able to pay for the treatment of illnesses which these foods cause, just like the tax for petrol, the higher the amount of petrol we use the higher the tax as it causes so much pollution.