Why couldn't taxing unhealthy foods be preventative? It's not as though only obese people are price sensitive. Nicholas Kristof at least thinks taxing can be

Why couldn't taxing unhealthy foods be preventative? It's not as though only obese people are price sensitive. Nicholas Kristof at least thinks taxing can be very effective: Let’s break for a quiz: What was the biggest health care breakthrough in the last 40 years in the United States? Heart bypasses? CAT scans and M.R.I.’s? New cancer treatments? No, it was the cigarette tax. Every 10 percent price increase on cigarettes reduced sales by about 3 percent over all, and 7 percent among teenagers, according to the 2005 book “Prescription for a Healthy Nation.” Just the 1983 increase in the federal tax on cigarettes saved 40,000 lives per year. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/18/opinion/18kristof.html?ref=opinion http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/18/opinion/18kristof.html?ref... That being said, I would be very skeptical of an unhealthy food tax, especially on the federal level, because I don't particularly trust the government to know what's healthy and unhealthy. Furthermore, such a measure would make it even harder for them to change their recommendations in the face of new evidence, for fear of looking stupid.