Fiscal policy to improve diets and prevent noncommunicable diseases: from recommendations to action

摘要

The World Health Organization has recommended that Member States consider taxing energy-dense beverages and foods and/or subsidizing nutrient-rich foods to improve diets and prevent noncommunicable diseases. Numerous countries have either implementedtaxes on energy-dense beverages and foods or are considering the implementation of such taxes. However, several major challenges tothe implementation of fiscal policies to improve diets and prevent noncommunicable diseases remain. Some of these challenges relate tothe cross-sectoral nature of the relevant interventions. For example, as health and economic policy-makers have different administrativeconcerns, performance indicators and priorities, they often consider different forms of evidence in their decision-making. In this paper, wedescribe the evidence base for diet-related interventions based on fiscal policies and consider the key questions that need to be asked byboth health and economic policy-makers. From the health sector’s perspective, there is most evidence for the impact of taxes and subsidieson diets, with less evidence on their impacts on body weight or health. We highlight the importance of scope, the role of industry, the useof revenue and regressive taxes in informing policy decisions.