Many manufactured food and drink products contain high levels of sugar, which causes many health problems. Sugary products should be made more expensive to encourage people to consume less sugar. Do you agree or disagree?

Processed

food

and artificial sugar have a bittersweet reputation regarding health, yet they acquire a significant proportion of many's dietary choices. Many approaches are proposed to help people cut down on these, in which raising the price tags is the highlight. In my opinion,

this

solution is viable, based on a possible marginal impact in changing eating habits and proven case studies.

This

strategy has the potential to promote healthy

food

consumption. What prevents many from choosing fresh vegetables and boiled chicken breast over a bag of chips, chicken nuggets, or carbonated drinks are their

prices

. Currently, these fast and frozen

food

are in the same price range as their healthy counterparts;

nevertheless

, they have an edge when being more appetising and offering more convenience. A study in the UK even showed that, counted per calorie, healthy or organic ingredients are three times more expensive.

Hence

, raising

prices

or levying surcharges on unhealthy options will gradually shift consumers' choices to cooking hearty meals, reducing the risks of obesity and diabetes.

In addition

, there are similar corollaries that have been effective. The best-known lesson is from the tobacco industry. Countries with low

prices

,

such

as Vietnam and Thailand, have considerably higher rates of smokers compared to Eastern countries where heavy taxes are instituted.

This

strategy can be adjusted and implemented in the

food

industry, combined with other educational campaigns to raise public health awareness, encouraging consumers to opt for better choices with lower

prices

.

For example

, in Japan, where the government implements significantly high taxation on pre-cooked products, there are campaigns to encourage parents to prepare Bentos lunch boxes for their children before school to develop healthy eating habits at an early age. In conclusion, imposing higher

prices

on manufactured

food

and beverage can directly tackle the barrier of the conventional wisdom holding that healthier diets are more expensive than less healthy options. In the long term,

this

will transform consumers' mindsets and promote healthfulness.