I went from being very skeptical of sodium’s effects on health (sodium is in all the least healthy foods, so it should come as no surprise that people who are unhealthy tend to eat lots of sodium), but after looking over the studies referenced in the report I’ve changed my mind.
From an individual perspective it makes no sense to care about sodium in-take as long as your blood-pressure is fine, but from a public health perspective a sodium tax seems almost like a free lunch.
Additionally I can imagine that advocating for a sodium tax might be one of the more doable asks one can make of a government and I could definitely see an organization doing sodium tax lobbying succeed.
I do think the evidence of sodium->adverse health consequences is very strong, but I’m also more bearish on a sodium tax now compared to the past—it could well be better to focus on the regulatory stuff, which tends to be less unpopular (as we see from climate, where people are fine with quotas but not taxes, even though they are functionally equivalent in their impact on CO2 emissions and prices). Looking forward to talking to nonprofits and advocacy orgs already working on this, and letting you and Jacob know if this is something CEAP might want to pursue!
I went from being very skeptical of sodium’s effects on health (sodium is in all the least healthy foods, so it should come as no surprise that people who are unhealthy tend to eat lots of sodium), but after looking over the studies referenced in the report I’ve changed my mind.
From an individual perspective it makes no sense to care about sodium in-take as long as your blood-pressure is fine, but from a public health perspective a sodium tax seems almost like a free lunch.
Additionally I can imagine that advocating for a sodium tax might be one of the more doable asks one can make of a government and I could definitely see an organization doing sodium tax lobbying succeed.
I do think the evidence of sodium->adverse health consequences is very strong, but I’m also more bearish on a sodium tax now compared to the past—it could well be better to focus on the regulatory stuff, which tends to be less unpopular (as we see from climate, where people are fine with quotas but not taxes, even though they are functionally equivalent in their impact on CO2 emissions and prices). Looking forward to talking to nonprofits and advocacy orgs already working on this, and letting you and Jacob know if this is something CEAP might want to pursue!