Would a sugar tax be a fix or a folly?

30 July 2015 - 02:02 By Katharine Child

Would a sugar tax, unpalatable as it may be, work? The British Medical Journal yesterday released a debate on the issue as medics in the UK call for a 20% sugar tax on junk food. Last year Wits School of Public Health Unit Priceless research showed a 20% tax on sugar-sweetened beverages could lead to 220000 fewer obese South Africans.Priceless researcher Wits Professor Karen Hofman said: "The cost of not having taxes will be very high. Not only will the numbers of obese continue to rise. In time these people will become diabetic, with all its complications such as blindness and amputations."She said tax on sugary beverages in Mexico instituted in 2014 had reduced demand by 17% in the past year.But Jack Winkler, emeritus professor of nutrition policy at London Metropolitan University, said in the British Medical Journal that food taxes are also economically ineffective and three of the four studies on Mexico's taxes on sugary drinks showed very small decreases in consumption.He noted: "Two rigorous studies involved soft drinks in Britain. One found that a 10% tax would reduce average personal daily intake by 7.5ml, less than a sip."The other showed that a 20% tax would reduce consumption by four calories. The effects of this size will not reverse global obesity."Professor Sirpa Sarlio-Lähteenkorva, adviser at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health in Finland, suggested that taxes should be placed on unhealthy ingredients such as sugar and salt rather than individual products such as soda as food producers would see this as fairer.She added: "General food taxes could also stimulate reformulated products, with less sugar and hence liable for less tax."..

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