Health expert recommends fat tax on unhealthy foods in the UK

The director of the health promotion research group at the University of Oxford has recommended the introduction of a tax on unhealthy foods to help reduce the number of overweight and obese people in the UK.
Mike Rayner has proposed a tax on a range of less healthy foodstuffs, including a 12p ($0.19 4/10) tax on soft drinks to get people to switch to a healthier alternative, as so many people in Britain are obese – which he claims is costing the NHS billions of pounds each year. He argued that since tax increases were already used to deter people from  smoking and drinking, a fat tax would improve our health and help raise money for the Treasury.
Rayner commented "There's evidence to show that manipulating food prices can encourage healthy eating. So why are we so reluctant to change the way we tax food?
He added "We need to rethink the way we apply VAT to food. At the moment we have a muddled system: you do pay tax on some relatively-healthy things like smoothies, but you don't pay it on a lot of junk food like chips or doughnuts." He also pointed out that Denmark already has a "fat tax" on foodstuffs that contain saturated fats, which are known to raise cholesterol levels.
However, the idea was been countered by Labour MP Angela Eagle and the Liberal Democrat minister Steve Webb, who would instead prefer improved nutritional education and better packaging.

We here in America have something similar to the UK Fat Tax called a Sin Tax. A sin tax is a kind of sumptuary tax: a tax specifically levied on certain generally socially proscribed goods and services. These goods are usually alcohol and tobacco, but also include candies, soft drinks, fat foods and coffee, while services range from prostitution to gambling.

Sumptuary taxes are ostensibly used for reducing transactions involving something that society considers undesirable, and is thus a kind of sumptuary law. Sin tax is used for taxes on activities that are considered socially undesirable. Common targets of sumptuary taxes are alcohol and tobacco, gambling, and vehicles emitting excessive pollutants. Sumptuary tax on sugar and soft drinks has also been suggested. Some jurisdictions have also levied taxes on illegal drugs such as cocaine and marijuana.

The revenue generated by sin taxes is sometimes used for special projects, but might also be used in the ordinary budget. American cities and countries have used them to pay for stadiums, while in Sweden the tax for gambling is used for helping people with gambling problems. Acceptance of sumptuary taxes may be greater than income tax or sales tax.