Posted on 10/04/2011 1:37:06 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The Food Police have stormed Denmark, where it is now a little more expensive to eat fattening food.
The country’s so-called “fat tax” went into effect on Saturday. The tax rate is 16 Danish kroner per kilogram of saturated fat in a food – in terms Americans can understand, that’s about $6.27 per pound of saturated fat – and it kicks in when the saturated fat content of a food item exceeds 2.3%.
The complex formula takes into account the amount of fat used to produce a particular food, not the amount that’s in the final product, according to Ole Linnet Juul, food director at Denmark’s Confederation of Industries. He calculated that the tax adds 12 cents to a bag of chips, 39 cents to a small package of butter and 40 cents to the price of a hamburger.
If this seems like a radical move, consider that Denmark has already banned the use of trans fats, which many doctors say is the worst kind because it raises bad cholesterol and lowers good cholesterol at the same time. Danes also pay sin taxes on sugary items like soda and candy. But the fat tax is believed to be the first of its kind in the world, Linnet Juul told the Associated Press.
The law was passed by a government the Associated Press describes as “conservative.” And while the fat tax may be a first, it may soon be joined by similar taxes in Finland and Romania.
In the United States, advocates of sin taxes for unhealthy foods don’t seem to be getting close to implementing a soda tax on sugar-sweetened beverages despite years of lobbying.
(Excerpt) Read more at articles.latimes.com ...
before too long there will also be a FAT32 tax..
The poor will be hit the hardest!
We will just have to give them an extra on the EBT cards¿?
I guess we won’t have to look for Michael Moore in Denmark.
That said, I did not see many fat Danes. They bicycled everywhere so that may have had something to do with it.
Dunno why they have this fat tax. I admire a lot about Denmark, but they do have a nanny state - it's a nice nanny, however.
Ugly socialism and fascism. But they tolerate it.
Truly stupid.
See? This is what taxes are for! And you thought taxes were for revenue! Silly!
When my parents’ doctor harshly criticized the amount of fat in their diets, they sweetly reminded him that they were in their nineties, not overweight, and likely to outlive him. They did.
They can’t tax the sugar in Cokes (or pop, or soda, depending on where you are from) because pop is made with corn sweetener.
Yeah, when I was in Denmark I saw one fat Dane—seriously, that was it.
Healthy people, beautiful dames, intrusive, bureaucratic socialist gov’t.
Or more likely a tax on fat people!
you post “When I lived in Denmark I could not believe that folks actually ate lard sandwiches.
That said, I did not see many fat Danes.”
(Despot’s Creed - throughout history. “He who controls the food, controls the people.” Remember and beware.
I won’t buy pork chops without the bone AND fat. I order my roast beef ahead with instructions NOT to trim the fat off.
I render my own lard for cooking, from organic lard.
I make ghee from organic butter (it takes out the milk solids and renders it healthier - not to mention keeps from going rancid much longer. (It’s also a great way to store butter. Put in canning jars - it can last for months.)
The fat-free craze that started a couple decades ago has proven to be unhealthy. We need fat in our diet. It’s just in knowing WHICH fats.
For cooking, I use grape seed oil, lard and coconut oils - and ghee. They all have a higher burn point than olive oil, do not overpower taste and do not go rancid as fast as olive oil. They also aren’t as likely to be “GMO’d” as is corn oil, soybean oil, canola (rape seed) oil, etc.
And, yes, lard is healthy for you. (if you use organic, fat back, and not use the store-bought HYDROGENATED lard. It’s the hydrogenation process that turns into TRANS fat.)
Do we need fat?
http://www.eatingdisordersonline.com/nutritional/fats.php
A couple links on lard.
http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/lard-the-new-health-food
http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2008/03/real-food-iv-lard.html
WARNING: (just how outrageous will it get?
Just when the need for fats and the dangers of the “fat free” diets are being realized, we have the ‘fat police’ - like Lard-a*S Madam O in the WH - determined to dictate what we shall and shall not be able to eat. (And, BTW, can someone tell me what her training is in there matters?).
I suspicion that if someone were to able to dig out what her true motivations are, they might lead to some playing footsie with the big boys - like Monsanto and other chemical outfits that are hell bent on controlling food production/consumption and precious little to do with healthy foods. The Organic, farm raised meat, milk, eggs and vegetables are gaining a real niche in the market. These big boys, with the help of their henchmen in the gov’t, are doing all they can to shut them down. (Ex: Swat teams raiding dairy farms and dumping raw milk, fining and threatening the farm. But that’s just the beginning.
How about this judge’s recent ruling? “”no, Plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to own and use a dairy cow or a dairy herd;
“no, Plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to consume the milk from their own cow;”
And in a kind of exclamation point, he added this to his list of no-nos: “no, Plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to produce and consume the foods of their choice...”
a link to that -
http://www.thecompletepatient.com/journal/2011/9/15/wi-judge-to-zinniker-ftcldf-no-fundamental-right-to-own-a-co.html
Remember the Despot’s Creed.
Just last week I bought a couple of pounds of lard from my natural meat connection. And I was wondering what was the best way to use it, so your info is timely and helpful!
Stay home and make your own food. Burgers, fries, hot dogs, oh and yes, GRAVY on the fries. :) Yummmmmmmm
Fat doesn't make you fat. They should tax flour and sugar (the true culprits of obesity) if their goal is as stated. Not that I advocate such a thing.
I recently bought a pound of lard and started using it in place of vegetable oil. The taste is amazing! And, as mentioned in my previous post, I don't think animal fat causes us to become fat.
Eliminate flour and sugar from your diet and eat all you want of the rest. That's been my experience anyway and my cholesterol levels never move.
LOL.
In Nova Scotia, even Mac Donald's serves gravy on their fries ;o)
I got some leaf lard from my fat back supplier - but I really didn’t like it. I have gone back to the fat back - and I don’t render it on the stove - takes too much tending, stirring to keep from scorching.
Instead, I put it in the oven, in a roasting pan, at 225 degrees and smash it down now and then with a potato ricer. I find this much easier. Takes an hour or more.... I also take the hide off first, don’t care for ‘cracklings, and this make the smashing and straining easier.
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