THE BIG DEBATE: SHOULD THE FIZZY DRINK TAX BE EXTENDED TO SUGARY FOODS?

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1 THE BIG DEBATE: SHOULD THE FIZZY DRINK TAX BE EXTENDED TO SUGARY FOODS? THE DILEMMA This year, the UK Government is introducing a new tax on sugary soft drinks, such as Coca-Cola and Fanta. It s an attempt to put people off buying and drinking so many drinks that are very high in sugar and can harm our health. But now there have been calls on the Government to extend the tax to all foods with a high sugar content, including cakes, cereals, biscuits, sweets and pastries. Christmas has just finished and you may well have received lots of tasty chocolates and sweets over the holiday. There s no doubt sugary foods taste great. But sugary foods and drinks are THE UK SUGAR TAX high in calories, which can make you put on weight if they are not burned off through exercise. Obesity (being extremely overweight) is a cause of major illnesses such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer. Sugar is also one of the main causes of tooth decay and other oral health problems. Taxes affect our buying choices: the high tax on cigarettes, for example, has helped to reduce the number of people who smoke, and a tax on sugary drinks in Mexico led to a 5.5% drop in sales of fizzy drinks the first year after it was introduced, and then a 9.7% fall in the second year. The Mexican tax is just A tax is a sum of money paid by individuals and companies to the Government. There are various types of tax, including one called value added tax (VAT) that applies to some, though not all, foods. Several doctors and public health campaigners have for many years been calling on the Government to introduce a sugar tax. In 2016, the UK Government announced it would be introducing a Soft Drinks Industry Levy, which is commonly known as the sugar tax. It will come into force in April of this year. Here s how the Soft Drinks Industry Levy will work: 1 peso (4p) per litre of sugary drink. Its biggest impact was on the poorest households, who consumed the most drinks (mostly Coca-Cola). But should everything that might be harmful if it s over-eaten be taxed? Or should people take responsibility for their own actions and have some selfcontrol? If you can restrict yourself to occasional sugary treats, why should you be punished by paying more at the till for them? Or is the obesity and tooth decay situation so bad that a tax on all sugary foods is the only answer? DEFINITION ADDED SUGAR Sugar that has been added to food and drink to sweeten it. It includes honey, syrups and fruit juice nectars. The levy will make soft drinks companies pay a charge for drinks with added sugar, and a total sugar content of five grams or more per 100 millilitres. There is a higher charge for the drinks that contain eight grams or more per 100 millilitres. Pure fruit juices won t be taxed, because they don t contain added sugar, only natural sugar that appears in fruit. Drinks that have a high milk content are also not part of the levy, because they contain calcium and other nutrients that are vital for a healthy diet. The levy will add 6p to a can of Fanta or Sprite, and 8p to a can of Coca-Cola or Pepsi.

2 FACTS & FIGURES 20% 20% Cancer Research UK says that a 20% tax on sugary drinks would prevent 3.7 million people becoming obese in the UK over the next 10 years. Children aged 4-10 get 15% of their energy intake from sugary foods. Despite NHS dental treatment being free for under-18s, 42% of children did not see a dentist in Tooth decay is now the number 1 reason for hospital admissions among young children. In 2014, more than 1.9 billion adults were overweight. Of these over 600 million were obese. The UK has the secondhighest obesity rate in Europe behind Hungary, where extra taxes have already been introduced on sugar. Hungary 1st UK 2nd 33% 33% of an averagesized jar of pasta sauce can contain more than 13g of sugar that s 3 teaspoons! 4.2bn Overweight and obese people cost the NHS at least 4.2 billion a year. Almost 25% of the added sugar in our diet comes from soft drinks. 5m 4m 3m 2m 1m Since 1996, the number of people with diabetes in the UK has risen from 1.4 million to 3.6 million.

3 WHY ONLY FIZZY DRINKS? The Government is clear that the levy isn t a tax on all sugar. The levy directly targets the producers and importers of sugary soft drinks to encourage them to remove added sugar and reduce portion sizes for high sugar drinks. The Government says that, if companies take the right steps to make their drinks healthier they will pay less tax or even nothing at all. But many people say manufacturers of sugary drinks will just pass on the cost of the tax through the price you pay, making it more expensive for people to buy, say, a can of cola. The more expensive it is, the less likely someone is to buy it. This logic has been applied to tobacco, which is heavily taxed in an attempt to reduce smoking. Soft drinks are being targeted because there are nine teaspoons of sugar in a 330ml can of cola, which instantly takes children above their recommended maximum for the day. Some cans of fizzy energy drinks contain 13 teaspoons of sugar! Public health experts such as the Chief Medical Officer and the British Heart Foundation agree that sugar-sweetened soft drinks are a major source of sugar for children and teenagers and that sugar intake drives obesity, as well as tooth decay. But there is also a lot of sugar in biscuits, cakes, sweets and even savoury foods such as pasta sauces. The Government says: The new levy revenue will be invested in giving school-aged children a brighter and healthier future, including programmes to encourage physical activity and balanced diets. OPINIONS The sweet habits of our children are having a devastating effect on the state of their teeth. That children as young as one or two need to have teeth extracted is shocking. Professor Nigel Hunt, dentist and fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons A sugars tax should be developed to increase the cost of sugar-rich food and drinks. The retail price of sugary drinks and sugar-rich foods needs to increase by at least 20% to have a reasonable effect on consumer demand. Professor Philip James of the World Obesity Federation

4 WHY IS SUGAR BAD? The two main problems caused by eating too much sugar are weight gain and tooth decay. Sugars are carbohydrates, which are substances found naturally in most foods that provide us with energy. Naturally occurring sugar is found is fruit, but refined sugar is added to lots of unhealthy foods including sweets, cakes, biscuits and fizzy drinks. A professor from the University of California who has written a book about the dangers of sugar says that added sugar is 11 times more likely to cause diabetes than general calories from other foods, such as meat and beans. WEIGHT GAIN Like much of the western world, Britain has an obesity crisis. According to the National Health Service (NHS), one in four adults (25%) and one in every five children aged 10 to 11 (20%) in the UK are currently obese. Carrying extra weight can lead to serious health problems everything from constant back-pain to potentially deadly illnesses such as diabetes, cancer and high blood pressure. Rates of these diseases in the UK are increasing, meaning more and more people will be relying on the NHS to treat their conditions. And that costs a lot of money. Worldwide, more than 2.1 billion people or nearly 30% of the global population are overweight or obese, with the figure set to rise to almost half of the world s adult population by TOOTH DECAY The mouth contains loads of bacteria, many of which are beneficial to our health. But some harmful oral bacteria feed on the sugars we eat to create acids that destroy the tooth enamel, which is the shiny, outer layer that protects the tooth. Harmful bacteria create acids that cause our teeth to rot, leaving cavities (holes) in them. Without treatment, cavities can go deeper into the tooth and lead to severe pain and the tooth having to be removed. DID YOU KNOW? Sugar appears under many different names in ingredients lists. All of these items are sugar: sucrose, glucose, fructose, maltose, molasses, hydrolysed starch, invert sugar, corn syrup, honey.

5 WHY IS SUGAR GOOD? The truth is there isn t much good about sugar, at least not in terms of our health. But it s very tasty! Most of us love a chocolate bar, or slice of cake, or bag of sweets. Our fondness for sugar is partly out of our control, though. We love sugar because we are wired to like it and our brains love it! A study found that new-born babies have a preference for sweet flavours over other flavours, and children generally have more of a preference for sweet things than adults. But scientists have also discovered that the taste of sugar can give our brains a quick boost, improving our ability to complete certain tasks. The sugar rush is a term used to describe the good feeling we get straight after eating it. It can boost our mood because it makes the body release something called serotonin into our bloodstream. But the sugar rush is soon followed by the sugar crash which happens as your body tries to get your blood sugar levels back to normal. This can make you tired and crave more sugar, leaving you stuck in a vicious sugar circle! SUGAR TAXES WORLDWIDE What might an extension of the fizzy drinks tax look like? Other countries have tried more general fat taxes which cover various fatty foods. In Denmark, a fat tax on unhealthy foods was introduced in October 2011 on milk, butter, cheese, pizza, meat, oil and processed food. But the following year the government scrapped the tax, claiming it hadn t made much difference to Danes shopping habits and directly led to many Danes buying fatty foods in nearby Sweden and Germany. However, in the year or so that it was in place, the tax raised some 170 million ( 140 million) for the Danish government, and researchers at Oxford University say it lowered fat consumption by 4%. But Denmark is not the only country to try a fat tax. The Mexican government passed a law that introduced taxes of 8% on junk foods high in fat, sugar and salt, and an additional one Mexican peso (about 4p) per litre of sugary drinks. Norway has had higher taxes on sugar, chocolate and sugarsweetened drinks since 1981, while Australia introduced a 10% tax on soft drinks, confectionery (sweets and chocs), biscuits and bakery products in A tax of 33 US cents per litre of sugary drinks was introduced in Berkeley, California, USA where it has helped reduce SSB [sugar-sweetened beverage] consumption by 21% and increased water consumption by 63%. SSB taxes have been approved in other parts of America, including Philadelphia and San Francisco. WHAT ABOUT PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY? Is it the job of a government to affect and control people s diets? While some doctors and nutritionists believe that governments should protect their citizens health by influencing shopping habits, others say that it is up to the individual what they eat and how they choose to spend their money. The term nanny state refers to a government that, according to some people, interferes in the personal lives of its citizens by trying to be extremely protective of them. So should health be a personal choice, and how much should it be influenced by government? If there is an epidemic of a major disease such as flu, the government is expected to act fast by spreading awareness and preparing stocks of vaccinations. Should this care extend to diet, smoking and alcohol consumption?

6 YES, EXTEND THE SUGAR TAX NO, DON T EXTEND THE SUGAR TAX 1. SUGARY FOOD IS JUST AS BAD It seems strange to only tax sugary drinks, when foods such as cakes, cereals and biscuits contain vast amounts of sugar. Let s be logical and consistent and tax anything that is high in sugar. 2. WE HAVE AN OBESITY AND DENTAL CRISIS With more and more people becoming obese, and tooth decay rocketing among children in the UK, it s time the Government took firm action to prevent this crisis getting worse. 3. TAXES MAKE A DIFFERENCE Making things cost more by adding a tax to them does change our shopping habits. Smoking rates in the UK have decreased as tobacco tax has increased. The Mexicans have seen incredible results since introducing a sugar tax. 1. LET PEOPLE MAKE THEIR OWN DECISIONS It s not up to the Government to influence our shopping decisions. We should be free to make our own decisions and not be punished for them by paying extra tax. 2. EDUCATION IS MORE EFFECTIVE The best way of reducing obesity and tooth decay is to educate young people and adults about the risks. You can t slap taxes on everything that could be harmful. 3. GO AFTER THE COMPANIES, NOT CONSUMERS Why should ordinary people have to fork out more money for a sugary treat? The companies that manufacture the foods should be encouraged to reduce sugar content so that the foods and drinks we buy are healthier.

7 Does the Soft Drinks Industry Levy (sugar tax) go far enough? If sugary foods were more expensive, do you think you d eat less of them? Should the Government be influencing what we do or don t eat and drink? Do you eat many sugary treats? Is education important to prevent people from over-eating unhealthy foods? Do sugary foods need better labelling on them so you know how many teaspoons worth of sugar they contain, rather than the grams total? Do you think the fizzy drink tax will make you drink fewer sugary drinks? Are taxes a good way to change people s shopping habits? Should food manufacturers be forced to decrease sugar levels in their foods?