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We ban the sale of cigarettes to children and tax heavily to discourage smoking by adults. Tobacco companies are forbidden to advertise. Why? Because we know smoking may cause cancer and other ailments. We have similar policies discouraging the use of alcohol.

The new health problem rapidly becoming an epidemic is obesity, particularly among children. We know colas and other sugary drinks are significant contributors to obesity. They are not as dangerous to health as smoking and drinking, so we probably couldn't justify banning their sale to children, but there is certainly a case for taxing them to raise prices and reduce consumption.

In fact, a case can be made for using taxes to discourage consumption of all prepared foods heavily laced with sugars and fats. Requiring food processors to tell consumers, in tiny print, what's in the can or package may encourage some to look for less dangerous food. Putting gruesome pictures on containers illustrating the dangers to health of eating the contents — as we mandate such pictures on cigarette packs — might discourage a few more. But adding taxes to double the price of unhealthy foods would certainly make shoppers think again.

A farfetched idea? Not really. We don't allow the sale of products known to be poisonous, so why not discourage consumption of products which we now know will be dangerous to health when eaten to excess over time? Many will say it smacks of nanny-state interference in decisions that should be a private responsibility. They may have a point when adults are involved, but children exposed to endless advertising and the conditioning of pop culture are in no position to take responsibility for their own decisions.

Anyway, we use tax policy to influence all sorts of private decisions to produce what we consider to be socially desirable results. The progressive income tax itself is intended to bear more heavily on the rich than the poor. There are, for a few examples, tax incentives for buying a first home, for retirement saving, for the higher education of one's children, for investing in Canadian companies. Taxes on corporations are manipulated to obtain all sorts of economic ends thought to be good for the country.

If more Canadians become more obese and fall ill as a result, there will be a rising burden on the health services, which are already stretched thin. Revenues from taxes on unhealthy foods would at least ease that problem.

Anthony Westell is a retired journalist striving to keep his weight in check.