Doctors Call for Sugar Tax on Fizzy Drinks

(ANTIMEDIA) United Kingdom —The British Medical Association has urged for the introduction of a 20% tax on sugary drinks in a step to tackle obesity in the U.K. It recommends that the tax, which could see cans of fizzy drinks rise from 65p to 78p with litre bottles increase from £1.85 to £2.22, be used to subsidise the notoriously high cost of fruits and vegetables.

In order to directly protect young people and help parents and caregivers make healthy choices, the BMA’s in-depth Food for Thought report challenges irresponsible retailing while setting out measures to improve knowledge and promote healthier diets.

The BMA’s claim that a strong regulatory framework is central in reducing the burden of diet related ill-health in the UK rubs directly against the SACN (the government’s advisory committee on nutrition) and its historical dubious partnership with industry.

Poor diet is most common among those with low incomes and other vulnerable groups. Concerns are that the majority of children, young people, and adults have high intakes of saturated fat, added sugars and salt—alongside poor levels of fruit, vegetables and fibre. With short lived mass-media campaigns found ineffective at changing behaviour, the tax hike targets the accessibility of unhealthy drinks and could reduce cases of obesity in the UK by 180,000 people, the BMA claims.

According to the British Nutrition Foundation there is some evidence of links between consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and obesity, with soft drinks the biggest culprits for sugar intake for children and young people.

The coalition government’s attempt at tackling obesity by asking food producers to change their behaviour achieved little and failed to improve eating habits in a policy which saw food firms, supermarkets, and high street chains make voluntary pledges in trying to ensure that Britons consume fewer calories per day. Despite being a major player in rising obesity levels, sugar was absent from the pledges, leading critics afterwards to condemn the deal as “flawed from the start.”

In May, Life Sciences Minister George Freeman hinted that a sugar tax could be in the offing. Highlighting the responsibility of food companies to cut down on the amount of sugar in their products, he suggested failure to do so could lead to penalties. However, in a further display of reluctance to condemn sugar, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt ruled out the introduction of a tax, insisting the U.K. government is looking at other means of encouraging people to eat healthier.

The BMA want to “create an environment where dietary choices default to healthy options” with a combination of taxing unhealthy products and incentivising healthier ones to cut down on obesity-related diseases, which it claims cost the NHS around £11bn per year.

“One area where it is hard to deny the evidence case for action is tax,’’ said Susan Jebb, professor of diet and health at the University of Oxford.

She added “tax is an established part of alcohol and tobacco control policies and now seems to be working in some countries which have introduced health-related tax on food.”

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Michaela Whitton joined Anti-Media as its first journalist abroad in May of 2015. Her topics of interest include human rights, conflict, the Middle East, Palestine, and Israel. Born and residing in the United Kingdom, she is also a photographer. Learn more about Whitton here!