'Sugar tax' on fizzy drinks raises €32m, but none of it goes on tackling obesity

El_Duderino 09 · 08-07-2019 07:07PM

Wanderer78 wrote: »

Pause for thought! How many are gonna truly do that? I suspect very few, if any, humans generally do not behave like this, when it comes addictive substances. I'd say there's a good chance it ll do very little to deal with our obesity issues

Yeah you could ask how many will pause for thought. And you could equally say the same thing about smoking. How many pause for thought because of the pictures on cigarettes, or the latest 15c tax, or the education campaigns, or the peer pressure to not smoke? And look at smoking rates over the last 20 years. Hard to argue against the effectiveness of the campaign in totality.

The truth is the approaches work in tandem with each other. Limiting the approach to one single avenue would be foolish. So too would expecting one single avenue to solve the problem. The approach is multi pronged.

kowloon · 09-07-2019 12:56AM

johnmcdnl wrote: »

"Some products, such as Lucozade, Fanta, Sprite and Vimto, changed their recipes so they contain less than 5g of sugar and avoid the tax."

I'm not convinced that's an entirely positive thing.

Popeleo · 09-07-2019 01:29AM

ceadaoin. wrote: »

In the US, unless a soda is advertised as diet, then it generally doesn't contain artificial sweeteners so it doesn't seem that a sugar tax, if there is one, made any difference to recipes. Maybe that's because more people here aren't very keen on sweeteners? There are loads of flavoured sparkling waters that specifically advertise themselves as not containing either sweeteners or sugar and they're very popular.

I notice when I'm home that pretty much everything in Ireland besides normal coke contains sweeteners now and tastes disgusting.

I'd take my chances with the sweeteners ahead of the high fructose corn syrup used in US soft drinks.
Nasty stuff, worse than ordinary sugar for causing diabetes. And GM too, which is why it is little used over here.
But its cheaper than sugar and keeps the US corn farmers happy.

kowloon · 09-07-2019 01:37AM

Popeleo wrote: »

I'd take my chances with the sweeteners ahead of the high fructose corn syrup used in US soft drinks.
Nasty stuff, worse than ordinary sugar for causing diabetes. And GM too, which is why it is little used over here.
But its cheaper than sugar and keeps the US corn farmers happy.

It's not sugar in particular that puts you at risk for T2 Diabetes, all carbs and obesity in general put you at higher your risk of developing it. Conversely, cutting all the carbs out and doing one of these keto diets could have the same effect. Genetics has its role to play too.

Chicken George · 09-07-2019 01:52AM

I'd rather be putting sugar into my body as part of a balanced diet than Aspartame, stevia and likes....
I rarely have fizzy drinks anyway but have cut out all the brands that have added these artificial sweeteners since the sugar tax.

ceadaoin. · 09-07-2019 02:47AM

Popeleo wrote: »

I'd take my chances with the sweeteners ahead of the high fructose corn syrup used in US soft drinks.
Nasty stuff, worse than ordinary sugar for causing diabetes. And GM too, which is why it is little used over here.
But its cheaper than sugar and keeps the US corn farmers happy.

It's easy to get drinks made with actual sugar too. Mexican coke is widely available and there are loads of other sodas made with sugar as well as options for both no sugar or sweeteners. At least you get the choice, unlike in Ireland.

'Sugar tax' on fizzy drinks raises €32m, but none of it goes on tackling obesity

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