Taxing Junk Food - Making America Healthier?

I have recently heard about many ideas about taxing unhealthy food, while keeping healthy food tax free. Every reason is to help America with the continuing problem of obesity and unhealthy habits but I can't help but wonder what underlying motives might be at play.

A Navajo Nation just recently hiked the tax prices on unhealthy food. The hope was to get people to think second about buying unhealthy food and maybe converting to that healthier and, in some cases, cheaper option. The council members of the Navajo Nation were reported as saying the goal was to "promote more healthy eating habits on the Navajo Nation in order to combat the growing problems of obesity and diabetes." This goal is a good one, no doubt. I would love to combat junk food that leads to diabetes and obesity. I think everyone else would too. It is proven that junk food can have detremental effects on your life, but what they say is the goal seems to me as a cover maybe.

I belive so many places today campaign these tactics to try and influence people on buying their products. First of all, most people are willing to continue and buy these unhealthy options because they think "what difference is a couple bucks." Then for those people that do switch to healthier products, how much cheaper is it because of the tax breaks. Often with this healthier food it costs way more than one would think. The prices start off higher than junk food because healtheir food needs more preparation and more care. Then healthier food goes bad quicker than most unhealthy foods, causing people to buy healthier products more often, then making a bigger dent in your wallet.

This reminds me of the famous breast cancer ribbon. This is now on hundreds of companies saying they support breast cancer aid. And while I'm sure they support breast cancer aid, many may use it as a marketing ploy to lure customers. And I wonder if the companies stop thinking about aiding people with breast cancer, and think about it only as a ploy for more money. I feel that some morals can easily get lost in this process.

Relating the food to the breast cancer ribbon, I think they are similar because companies or towns may use that ploy of buying healthy foods, but I'm afraid that the true ideal of making America healthier may get lost along the way with many companies. Can you think of any symbols or ideas similar to this that are sometimes lost because of a need for more money? How important do you think this issue is?