Global health groups push for U.S. to slap taxes on fatty foods

The U.S. government, along with nations around the globe, should regulate fatty foods in the same way it does tobacco, two world health groups told a Geneva audience this week.

Among the recommendations from Consumers International and the World Obesity Federation to the World Health Assembly in Switzerland: Governments around the world should control and regulate food and beverage industries in the exact manner they oversee tobacco manufacturers — especially when it comes to advertising and billing foods as healthy when they’re not, the National Journal reported.

The groups also said governments should impose stricter standards on dietary advertisements on food packaging, paying special attention to sale, saturated fat and sugar contents.

And finally, the groups called for total food policy reform — and the imposition of taxes on foods that are deemed unhealthy, as well as subsidies for those that are deemed healthy, the National Journal said.

The recommendations are aimed at countering obesity rates.

At least recommendation has already found itself into the American restaurant system. The groups want nations’ governments to mandate eating establishments to do a better job of posting calorie and nutrition information for diners — and that’s already been pushed into law by Obamacare.

Much of the groups’ recommendations would find a difficult time of achieving passage in the U.S. Congress, analysts say, the National Journal reported. But the suggestions come as Americans’ eating habits are already in the limelight, due to first lady Michelle Obama’s ongoing nutrition standards that are being implemented — and fought — in school cafeterias around the nation.