WHO Chief Scientist proposes Tax to be Imposed on High Salt, Fat & Sugary Foods

WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said that the union health ministry should impose a higher tax on high salt, high fat and high sugar food products. 

She further said that the food safety and Standards Authority of India should also change the packaging of food products and show high fat, sugar and salt products with the coding of red colour. Nutritional declaration of various calories like fat, sugar and sodium should be properly displayed along with specific detailing of serving percentage and recommended dietary allowance on the front packaging. 

More about states and its problems

This is important to put a stoppage on various types of diseases such as obesity, hypertension, heart and kidney diseases and many others. Various states like Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Karnataka should revise their health policies and work on it to make it better and expanded. Such states should focus more on nutritional foods and products like eggs, bio-fortified veggies and fruit, modify the children’s noon plate with much nutritional food. 

A recent survey done across the country by UNICEF said that people are suffering from various illnesses like 41% anaemic, 18% deficit in Vitamin A, 15% deficit in Vitamin B12 and 24% deficit in Vitamin D. Not only this, children in various states suffering from pre-diabetes, high cholesterol levels and even hypertension. Every state has its own problem and should focus more on making policies by understanding the needs and problems of its people. 

Growing number of diseases

Various diseases like obesity and heart diseases are growing at a very fast pace. The main reason could be the consumption of unhealthy foods. People and children are under nutrition which is creating long-term negative impacts on health. 

One of the major consequences of bad health is the easy accessibility of cheap and unhealthy food than healthy ones. Improper knowledge of healthy food and misleading nutrition information on the label of processed foods are majorly contributing to this problem. 

There are various things you must check before purchasing the processed food items to make yourself happy and healthy. In order to protect yourself from bad health and negative calories one should do: 

• Read the ingredients label
• Add the calories of all ingredients
• Try to avoid processed sweeteners
• Replace refined flour from cornflour
• Choose to stick to jaggery products
• Avoid processed drinks as they are rich in processed sugars
• Switch to whole wheat cookies
• Cut off the MSG

Footnote

Be sure to check out all the ingredients before buying any processed foods in order to prevent yourself from bad health and well-being. Though the government is soon going to take some preventive steps towards the consumption of processed foods but self-care and proper knowledge is the way to go.