CREDIT: KERRA SEAY
Canada has been ranked fifth internationally for their obesity rates and Canadians are urging the government to help put an end to this epidemic.

The Senate released a new study titled Obesity in Canada this month. They found that the rate of obesity in adults has doubled and the rate of obesity in children has tripled since 1980. Canada was found to be ranked fifth in the world in the number of obese citizens.

Canadians are calling on the federal government to help end this epidemic by implementing a tax on beverages with added sugar, such as fruit juice and pop.

Aaron Wudrick, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, released a statement pressing the government to reject the proposed tax.

“Fat and sugar taxes have a dubious record with respect to actually improving public health, but a consistent one when it comes to filling government coffers and killing jobs,” Wudrick said. “This government seems attuned to the fact that more taxes would be harmful to Canada’s economic growth, and we would encourage them to resist calls for any new, regressive taxes.”

The Canadian Beverage Association (CBA) released a statement as well. “This has been tried in other jurisdictions and it has failed. It didn’t reduce obesity. It increased the price of groceries, and resulted in job losses in the food and beverage sector,” said Jim Goetz, president of the CBA.

In addition to the proposed tax, the Senate has requested that the federal government rewrite Canada’s food guide without input from the food and beverage industries.

University of Montreal’s Jean- Claude Moubarac, who has a PhD in public health, suggests that Canada follow the Brazil food guide, which focuses more on how food is prepared or processed.

“In Canada we’re grouping together things like sausages and chicken within the same group. We want to orient people into choosing the best quality of food that is out there. These are foods that are close to nature,” he told CBC’s All in a Day.

The report also stated that the Senate would like to see food and drink ads that are directed at children banned. They are also recommending a national campaign to combat obesity, ban the use of partially hydrogenated oils to cut trans fat content in food, revisit how food companies make nutrition labels and to introduce nutrition labeling on menus, along with many others.