Pioneering Denmark Distinguishes Itself By Starting Fat Tax

No more noshing Danishes for you, Danish people! Denmark is instituting the world’s first so-called “fat tax,” involving a price increase on foodstuffs that are high in saturated fats in an effort to deter citizens from buying them.

Is this price hike because Danes are notoriously large? Nope. In fact, as Time reports, less than 10% of Denmark’s population is considered clinically obese, lower than the rest of Europe’s average. Seems they’re just playing “better safe than sorry.”

The increased prices on fatty foods like butter, high-fat dairy products, oils, chips and more, started Oct. 1, and were caused in part by the country’s Institute of Food and Resource Economics attaching blame to saturated fats for 4% of Denmark’s premature deaths.

Denmark Institutes First-Ever Fat Tax [Time]

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