Is taxation the answer or is awareness going to reduce our sugar consumption?
The British Medical Association is advising that sugary drinks should be taxed at 20 per cent to tackle the obesity crisis.
But will additional tax on these drinks actually make a difference to consumption, or is it awareness that will make people change their drinking habits? When we hear about sugary drinks, our initial thinking may be directed towards fizzy drinks consumed mainly by children, however, when you look at the chart below, you may be surprised about the large amount of sugar contained in some of these drinks.
This graphic shows how many teaspoons of sugar are in each of the fizzy drinks and sugar-laden juices above
Most of us know that that Britons are consuming far too much sugar and doctors link this to a rise in illnesses such as diabetes. Somehow, we need to make a shift back to drinking more water and less processed products, so is increasing tax the answer. Shouldn’t manufacturers of these products take some responsibility and just stop producing these harmful products?
The BMA, which represents 153,000 doctors, is seeking a ban on advertising unhealthy food and drink around children’s television programmes and an end to the marketing of sweets by children’s TV characters. But why make these products in the first place?
Should sugary foods and drinks carry a cigarette-style warning pictures to highlight the risk they pose to children’s health and teeth?
What are your views? Is additional taxation on these drinks going to make a difference to consumption? Could awareness of sugar content be more effective than taxation? Is there enough awareness of how much sugar is hidden in these drinks? Is it time to rethink what is actually manufactured and sold? Is it time for us to advocate for something different?
What are your views?
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Taxation is not the answer as the money would not go back into educating people. Food education should begin at home, but in many cases that is where the problem starts. So it would have to be at school, which is an added burden on the teachers. There is no easy answer.
I try to make our own drinks because I know what is in them. It is easy to make lemonade and water is easily obtainable. If we continue to buy drinks they will continue to sell them additives as well.
To take an example from above: "The Juicy Water" uses branding and their name (the incorporation of the word water) to deliberately beguile the consumer into thinking they are choosing the healthy option. It's deceptive and should be addressed by the government bodies to be misleading, and, in my opinion, dangerous to the consumer making the convenience purchase!
The nature of these products is to provide a drink in an environment where you probably don't have time to study the ingredients, so I think we all fall victim to relying on the message the packaging, and name, conveys.
Maybe restrictions should be put in place to combat this. All drinks with a sugar content higher than X are enforced to have a red lid, or pull tab. All drinks with a sugar content lower than X could be allowed (by trading standards) to use a lid or pull tab that is green, for example.