i think that if we used body fat percentage with respect to gender and age, then we could find a reasonable substitution for the BMI chart that would take a health-focused approach, instead of a be-like-everyone-else approach, this fat tax would work really well.

there was mention that it was not just for obese people, the tax would be for obese people who do not follow a doctor’s dietary recommendations. wouldn’t this mean that your friend could go see a doctor, maybe get some help figuring out why he’s had such crappy luck in the metabolism lottery, and not have to pay the fat tax?

Obesity is defined as have BMI of 30 or more, which is about the 90th percentile or so. Being overweight is very different from being obese, as there is a significantly weaker correlation between BMI and health risks once BMI dips below 30. Being overweight is classified as a BMI between 25 and 30, which is still far above the norm, but not necessarily harmful to the population as a whole, nor is it such a burden on healthcare systems.

Thanks for your comment! I agree that people producing cheap fast food would not be very interested in any measures that directly affects them. And they have a much stronger lobby than Medicaid recipients.

“my functional definition of healthy is not presenting with a disease and living a healthy lifestyle as deemed by experts within the respective fields (nutrition, exercise sci, pychology, sociology, theology, others?). ” mark

Are there no studies that fit your criteria, ie that someone eating a calorific intake suited to their active ifestyle but are still overweight?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXFXwlNAbME – this video series does address some of your observations. Particluarly the actress who believed she had a slow metabolism. (slow metabolism being the evergreen excuse for being overweight)

Good to hear from you again, Mark!

And you put in a perspective that so far didn’t occur to me – if we take governor Brewer’s train of thought to the bitter end, we might indeed end up with accepting state-funded liposuction treatments as a logical outcome.

Bigger people don’t necessarily eat more. I doubt many obese people could force down what Michael Phelps eats on a daily basis. I ate 2-3x as much as I do now, yet I weighed 30 lbs less.

Maybe they should have an exercise tax since it leads to increased food consumption and a larger carbon footprint?

Data are pretty clear that excess fat, by itself, does not lead to morbidity/mortality (Gregg 2003 Arch Int Med; Lissner Ob Res 2001) . There are even data illustrating fat is protective (Obesity Paradox, Dr. Paul McAuley’s VA data as well as others). So, turning fuel into fat does not = unhealthy, at least from a morbidity/mortality perspective. Since obesity is not a disease, my functional definition of healthy is not presenting with a disease and living a healthy lifestyle as deemed by experts within the respective fields (nutrition, exercise sci, psychology, sociology, theology, others?). Thus, I think there is more to health than diet and exercise. Genetics plays a role as well given the “fit & fat” data.

Going further down that path, should underweight and normal be taxed the same as obese since overweight is the BMI region with the lowest mortality risk (Flegal CDC-P data)?

Good stuff and great postings, cheers — Mark