Researchers revealed that billion of rupees could be saved by imposing taxes on unhealthy foods that contain salt, sugar and fat.
The study led by Linda Cobiac of the university said that such taxes could save Australia AUD $3.4 billion (USD$ 2.3 billion) over the remaining lifetimes of all Australian alive in 2010.
A number of other Western countries have already implemented or proposed taxes on unhealthy foods and drinks in a bid to curb the obesity epidemic.
The study modeled the effect of taxing saturated fat, salt, sugar, and sugar-sweetened beverages in Australia, as well as the impact from subsidizing fruits and vegetables.
The most significant gains could be achieved by taxing sugar, which the study said could avert 270,000 disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) — or years of healthy lifespan lost due to disease. “That is a gain of 1.2 years of healthy life for every 100 Australians alive in 2010,” said the study.
“Few other public health interventions could deliver such health gains on average across the whole population.” The second-greatest impact was seen in a salt tax, followed by a saturated-fat tax and a sugar-sweetened beverage tax.
