But the most terrible thing is that not only sedentary adult city dwellers will start to get fat, but also restless children. In fifteen years, 20% of boys will answer to the nickname "Fatty", and the number of chubby girls will exceed 30%. This last fact particularly frightens the British: after all, if the sad forecast comes true, the beautiful myth of slim English girls raised on oatmeal and lawn tennis will become a thing of the past, and the young island girls will be no different from fat American women fed on hamburgers and popcorn, except for their noble British pronunciation.
Doctors are sounding the alarm: the nation's health is under threat. After all, from a doctor's point of view, a fat person is a time bomb placed under the health care system. Sooner or later, excess weight will cause either a heart attack, diabetes, or some other chronic disease. The government is calling for urgent measures - for example, a nationwide campaign to encourage the population to lead a healthy lifestyle. But since it is extremely difficult to force people to eat less and run to the pool before work in the morning, we have to rely on measures of economic coercion. And the main "medicine" could be raising prices on fatty foods.
In a big report on the catastrophic state of affairs with British excess weight, sent by doctors to Downing Street, it is proposed to introduce a "fat tax" in the country. If this idea is supported, then hamburgers, whole milk, cheese, chips, and other harmful products will be subject to an increased value-added tax. And since any tax increase is immediately passed on by the seller to the shoulders of buyers, this measure will automatically lead to higher prices for fatty foods. This should deal a decisive blow to the wallets of lovers of cheap fast food and force them to buy more low-calorie products. By the way, a similar tax already exists in Britain (for example, soda and ice cream are subject to it), but producers of hamburgers and chips have long learned to circumvent this requirement by simply slightly changing the ratio of ingredients in their products.
Just in case, the report proposes another measure that hits not the wallet but the psyche of fat people. It is proposed to place warning labels on packages of confectionery and other high-calorie foods, similar to those that have long adorned cigarette packs. For example, write something scary on chips like "The Ministry of Health of the United Kingdom warns: eating fatty foods increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes." Recently, by the way, similar threats were proposed to be placed on bottles of alcoholic beverages - after all, alcoholism has long been considered a national misfortune of Albion. However, the future of these initiatives is still very vague: after all, doctors and public organizations advocating for a sober and slim Britain will have to not only climb the entire bureaucratic ladder of lawmaking, but also overcome the resistance of corporations making money on fast food and alcohol.