the flying dutchman

i hate to release this thread after Jnstropic's great thread about how healthy
bananas are but this is really true and not a joke.

the following happened.

The government of Holland is planning to put a TAX on unhealthy food.
So far so good.
The reason is(and I only repeat their words) that they don't want that
the dutch children become as fat as the children in the US(sorry).
Now the thing is they mentioned the banana as making children thick and
thus unhealthy. Has to do something with the amount of sugars I believe.
Well, are they going bananas or not?

Ron

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mrbungalow

This is a sad development, and shows the gap between man and nature is increasing.

They are talking about the same thing in scandinavia, but hopefully for unhealthy synthetic foods with too much fat and salt. Governments shouldn't put a tax on one of mother nature's products. Contrary, governments should encourage citizens to eat fruits and vegetables of all types. It would take pretty many bananas to make a person obese, with all that fiber.

Just so everyone knows, I am actually against governments "protecting us from ourselves", if I want to eat at Burger-King every day, drink alcohol, or use tobacco, it should be my own choice, and it's my own responsibility to find out any dangers or hazards associated with these products. Any eventual taxes should be associated with eventual public health-bills, and not be used to "milk" the people. Sadly, in Norway they tend to "milk the people".

It would be fine with me though, if they put taxes on unhealthy pre-fabricated foods taking over the grocery-stores in Norway. But as per this date, these foods are the more inexpensive foodtypes, wich most people choose in the worlds' most expensive country. They do have to make the alternative healthy foods more available and cheaper. Those nice, slim, scandinavian asses we are bragging about in our tourist-pimplets are growing into cellulite mountains as we speak!

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bigdog

That's very unfortunate, Ron. Socialism at its finest, eh? Yikes!

I completely agree with this, Erlend. What ever happened to common sense? When I hear of people suing McDonalds because they got fat, it makes me want to vomit. Or someone suing the tobacco companies because they got cancer...umm...it says right on the warning label that it could do just that! Governments need to be finding ways to stay out of our lives and business, not get in them even more. Regulating bananas?? What's next?

Bamboo Conne'iseur

I agree that its up to us to make our choices, and that gov. should stay out. I also think its crazy when people sue mickyDs because they got fat. However, I do find one thing a bit disturbing. Not a lot of people know that a lot of these fast food places put some crazy things in their food that leads to bad health on purpose out of greed. I wonder how many people know that McDs puts in a chemical that causes the body to shut off a switch so to speak that tells you when you are full. To me that is disturbing, and may warrant a lawsuit if they are putting items in their food, that causes these reactions. Most people have no clue as to what is actually in these fast foods. Its a lot worse than you might think, and can cause many health issues.
As far as anyone saying bananas causes you to get fat, that is a load of nonsense. Bananas are rich in potassium and have fiber, among other things that are good for you. I could understand if you ate five bananas right before you went to bed every night, but who does that?

bananimal

Erland,

I thought Venezuela was the most expensive country. I know it has a higher standard of living than the USA.

Oh, by the way, where can we find some of those tourist-pimplets with all those nice slim Scandinavian assets?

I had a childhood friend whose father loved to repete again and again - "A thousand Swedes ran thru the weeds, chased by one Norwegian". He thought it was hilarious. I always wondered if there is some hidden meaning in this joke. That is, besides the obvious. You see, the Nelson family was Swedish!!! Please explain.

Dan