Taxing palm oil would lower cardiovascular mortality in poor countries, which are heavy consumers. Over 350,000 lives could be saved in India.
The French deputies rejected this Thursday the two amendments aimed at taxing palm oil and aspartame during the examination in public session of the 2014 Social Security finance bill. With this new tax, the deputy Jean -Louis Roumegas (EELV), depositary of the amendments, did not only target Nutella. Palm oil remains, in fact, widely used in ready meals and industrial cakes sold in our supermarkets. Yet according to nutritionists, it should be consumed in moderation. The saturated fatty acids it contains promote the deposition of cholesterol-rich plaques on the inner lining of the arteries. This “bad fat” is an additional risk factor for cardiovascular disease. So, what could the application of the Nutella tax lead to in countries which are heavy consumers of it?
Nutella tax would save more than 300,000 Indians every year
In a study published a few days ago in the BMJ and relayed in the Jim.fr, an international team sought to assess the effect that a palm oil tax would have on certain health indicators. To carry out this experiment, these researchers chose India, a country with very high cardiovascular mortality where a lot of palm oil is consumed.
Using a simulation model, they were able to assess the benefits of a 20% palm oil tax applied for ten years (between 2014 and 2023). Considering a scenario in which no other oil replaced palm oil, the team estimated that around 363,000 deaths from myocardial infarction or stroke could be prevented.
In addition, if Indian consumers were to replace palm oil products with other healthier polyunsaturated oil foods (rapeseed, peanuts, sunflower), this tax would be even more beneficial and thus allow save around 421,000 people. But according to these researchers, “the reality is rather between the two extremes. “
The tax would benefit city dwellers more
However, such a tax would benefit some populations more than others, according to these projections. Researchers estimate that taxing palm oil at 20% would save more men than women. And the urban populations that are most affected by cardiovascular disease would also benefit the most.
Scientists still want to qualify their estimates. According to them, a scenario inducing an increase in palm oil-based products would also have disastrous consequences on the food expenditure of the most precarious Indian households. “The resulting food insecurity could also cause more than 16,000 additional deaths!” “
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