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Is this really different from smoking or another harmful unhealthy lifestyle choice? It's abusing food, and it has negative consequences.

The cost of health care to manage obesity and related issues is staggering and will only increase.

Maybe the USA should start having a BMI tax?

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It may be that that lower income means lower quality food means higher BMI, in which case a BMI tax would exacerbate the problem. Food for thought.

OK, so tax garbage food and tax BMI.

Really, it should be no different than any other sin tax. It's behavior you want to discourage, so tax it.

Simply raising prices on bad food would not be enough. Food education and getting healthy food choices to be more affordable are key. There are huge swathes of people who have no clue what eating healthy looks like. And eating healthy is more expensive.

BMI is not always a valid gauge. It does not take into account above average muscle mass. My BMI says that I am obese. I have, maybe, 20 extra pounds on me. If I lost that, I would be abs-in-your-face shredded (or very near it).

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