Transcript
Question:
What do you think of New York's proposal to ban salt in restaurants?
Mark Bittman:
I think it's moronic. I
think that the problem with salt, to the extent that there is a problem with
salt, and this is not really, really clear, but to the extent there is a
problem with salt, it's the salt in processed foods. People who don’t eat a lot of processed foods don’t have
problems with salt. People who add
their own salt to food have no problems with salt. Chefs who make their own – chefs in restaurants who cook
from scratch and add salt to their taste or to the perceive tastes of their
diners are not adding criminal amounts of salt. If you want to limit the amount of salt that McDonalds puts
in its processed foods, that's great.
I'd like to limit the amount of food they can sell period. It's not really a salt problem, it's an
overall food problem.
Question: Why are proposals to tax sugary sodas important?
Mark
Bittman: Well, I think it is happening, which is
really amazing. The mayor of
Philadelphia just proposed a very – the proponents of a soda tax or generally
proposing a penny per ounce as an excise tax, which means 12 ounce can of soda
might cost a $1.12 instead of $1.00 and a 24-pack case of soda might cost --
might double in price from a sale price of $2.99 or $3.99. That's really incredible. The guy in Philadelphia, I think his
name is Nutter, but hey it's his name.
The guy in Philadelphia is proposing two cents per ounce, which is
really quite amazing because it means a $1.00 can of soda would cost a $1.25. A 32 ounce bottle of soda that was a
$1.00 would cost a $1.64 and so on.
So I think it is
happening. Why is it
important? Soda is the leading
source of calories for Americans.
Americans get seven percent of their calories from soda, which is more
than they get from any other single food.
And let's think about this, it's non-nutritive. That is to say no benefit
whatsoever. None. Like it's not harmless, it's negative. Secondly, it's a leading cause of
obesity in the United States. I
mean, if obesity is a problem, you have to look at where the calories are
coming from. If soda is the number
one source of calories in the United States and it's not a beneficial source of
calories, it's something people can do without.
So if you're
obese and you're looking for ways to help people figure out what they can do
without, soda is a very good start.
So I think the tax is a very smart thing. There is some research that shows that taxing junk food,
which soda is a junk food, taxing junk food is more likely to help people eat
well than subsidizing healthy food.
The irony is that if you subsidize healthy food people will take the
money they're saving and buy junk food, which is sad but true.
I think the soda
tax makes sense. I think it's
happening. I think it's going to
happen this year and next year. I
think it is going to be a swell of soda taxes and I think once the greedy state
legislatures realize they can make money on this thing it's going to have even
more momentum.
