France taxing sugar and artificial sweeteners?

forestfruits

I understand the taxing of sugar in drinks but why the artificial sweeteners ?
The official line is it's a tax to help tackle obesity - so why tax the artificial sweeteners? Any ideas?

EileenG

I suspect because the sort of food that has sugar/sweetener is generally not exactly bursting with nutrition. We're mostly talking about biscuits, cakes, sweets, chocolate, stuff like that. Even if you replace the sugar with sweetener, it's still not an optimal food choice, and having a taste for cake etc isn't good, even if it's articially sweetened.

rocky

Governments deciding the 'optimal' nutrition... sure, what could possibly go wrong?

The Artificial Sweeteners are bad because they are artificial, everyone knows that... well almost everyone

GT_TDI_150

governement tax drink, and fags and people are up in arms but when attack bad foods people find it normal ..... ?!?!?!?

Next thing I'll get taxed for deciding not to go for a run today, or we will all get tokens to watch telly and when your free ones run out you need to by more from the governemtnt .... cop on FFS!


why do the governements feel they have to 'control' every part of peoples lives?

If things are that bad .... ban the items from shops .... mmmmmh, no tax take then though!!



this kind of 'innitiative' annoys the crap out of me ..... nothing but a tax spinner!

El_Dangeroso

Yeah, it is a money spinner. But don't forget that you already pay for people's poor dietary choices through the government funded health service.

I'd be more in favour of a curb on marketing of junk food. Especially to children.

fleet

It's not about public health, it's about revenue.

If they really cared about public health they'd give tax breaks to those who keep themselves healthy.

rubadub

A quick google and all I see is soft drinks being taxed, and ones with sugar not sweetners. Coca-cola are not impressed

http://www.connexionfrance.com/new-french-tax-sugary-sweetened-fizzy-drinks-doubled-help-farmers-agriculture-13058-view-article.html

A PROPOSED new tax on sugary drinks could bring in twice as much money as initially planned, to help support France's farming industry....

Only drinks with added sugar are affected - products with sweeteners and drinks that are naturally sweet such as fruit juice will not be taxed.

The government hopes the extra funds will reduce the burden on farmers, especially fruit and veg producers who have been among the worst affected by the economic crisis in recent years

Food producers' union Ania said the government needed to make its mind up and put a stop to the uncertainty surrounding the tax. Coca-Cola Europe president Hubert Patricot said: "We remain strongly opposed to this tax, which unfairly targets people's spending power and which stigmatises an individual category of drinks."

Might see some new drinks on the market, like fizzy juices, not that they are much better.

Alopex

GT_TDI_150 wrote: »

governement tax drink, and fags and people are up in arms but when attack bad foods people find it normal ..... ?!?!?!?

Next thing I'll get taxed for deciding not to go for a run today, or we will all get tokens to watch telly and when your free ones run out you need to by more from the governemtnt .... cop on FFS!

We can just eat different foods. If there were other drugs to take you wouldn't see much complaining neither.

why do the governements feel they have to 'control' every part of peoples lives?

If things are that bad .... ban the items from shops .... mmmmmh, no tax take then though!!



this kind of 'innitiative' annoys the crap out of me ..... nothing but a tax spinner!

Well basically the population are making the wrong diet and lifestyle choices but also expect free healthcare. Even look at how much diabetes type 2 has increased in recent times. It affects overweight people a lot so its quite a big financial drain on the state to pay for medical cards and drugs for them.

I am in the same boat as you. I'm not overweight but like the odd bit of junk food. A much fairer way would be to make overweight people pay higher taxes but just think of the reaction to that. Something does have to be done though.

forestfruits

Is there a link between artificial sweeteners and obesity?

I would have assumed not. So why tax them in the name of reducing numbers if people becoming overweight.

I'm by no means a fan - just wondered...

Adelie

The link that rubadub posted explicitly states that they are not proposing to tax artificial sweeteners.

Do you have some other source that indicates that they are?

corkcomp

"IF" they are proposing to tax artificial sweeteners its to increase revenue, not to protect people IMO.. Even the Irish govt would have you believe that the tax on cigarettes is to protect peoples health and stop them smoking (which it might in a small number of cases) but we all know the real reason.

forestfruits

http://www.vancouversun.com/touch/story.html?id=5597860

I had read this article or something else from reuters well just scanned through it really