Survey finds majority support tax on sugary drinks

Ken Shamrock · 23-06-2014 05:04PM

Fat Christy wrote: »

Down with this sort of thing!

Careful Now

Paramite Pie · 23-06-2014 05:06PM

yawhat! wrote: »

Fizzy drinks do not cause people to get fat!

Yes they do! I understand your outraged (and you are entitled to be) but spouting nonsense like that shows how little you know about nutrition. Sugar is the main contributing factor to obesity. The fact that most people don't do the research themselves only gives credence to the idea that the government needs to babysit your sugar habits.;)

http://www.obesity-info.com/2012/04/sugar-make-you-fat.html

http://authoritynutrition.com/6-healthy-sugars-that-can-kill-you/

When the body consumes more sugar than it can handle at once (ie one 330ml can of coke) it causes a "insulin burst" where your pancreas pumps up the insulin levels to try to expel the toxic (yes toxic) levels of glucose. Normally you should vomit immediately from drinking the fizzy drink but the added phosphoric acid suppresses the natural gag reflex. The fact that they even need to add that should be enough of a warning sign.

Anyways, one of insulin's roles in the body is trigger fat cells, and high levels of insulin causes the the fat cells to gather all the energy (glucose) in the blood and store it as fat. The body then can't access this energy and starts to assume it's hungry again. So you get you get your next sugary craving and the cycle continues.:)

http://authoritynutrition.com/4-ways-sugar-makes-you-fat/
http://dailyhealthpost.com/this-is-what-happens-in-your-body-when-you-drink-a-coke/

Sugar = Fat

Most people skim the sugar content of their food and only read the the 'fat' or 'carb' content on the label while largely underestimating the third factor relating to weight gain. The reality is that all refined sugars are simplified pure carbs (the worst kind of carbs).

Your daily requirement of sugar is only 10 teaspoons (one can of fizzy drink). If you drink 5 cups of tea a day with 2 teaspoons of sugar then virtually EVERYTHING ELSE you consume in that day will contain excess sugar -- not just your fizzy drinks. At let's face it, many people do drink that much tea (+sugar) so if they have just one can of coke it's excessive.:pac:

The only thing fizzy drinks are good for is unblocking the sink or a cheap way to descale your kettle. It also makes a good toilet cleaner.

Hande hoche! · 23-06-2014 05:11PM

Paramite Pie wrote: »

Your daily requirement of sugar is only 10 teaspoons (one can of fizzy drink). If you drink 5 cups of tea a day with 2 teaspoons of sugar then virtually EVERYTHING ELSE you consume in that day will contain excess sugar -- not just your fizzy drinks. At let's face it, many people do drink that much tea (+sugar) so if they have just one can of coke it's excessive.:pac:

The only thing fizzy drinks are good for is unblocking the sink or a cheap way to descale your kettle. It also makes a good toilet cleaner.

Anything about diet/sugarfree drinks?

Ken Shamrock · 23-06-2014 05:19PM

Paramite Pie wrote: »

Yes they do! I understand your outraged (and you are entitled to be) but spouting nonsense like that shows how little you know about nutrition. Sugar is the main contributing factor to obesity. The fact that most people don't do the research themselves only gives credence to the idea that the government needs to babysit your sugar habits.;)

When the body consumes more sugar than it can handle at once (ie one 330ml can of coke) it causes a "insulin burst" where your pancreas pumps up the insulin levels to try to expel the toxic (yes toxic) levels of glucose. Normally you should vomit immediately from drinking the fizzy drink but the added phosphoric acid suppresses the natural gag reflex. The fact that they even need to add that should be enough of a warning sign.

Anyways, one of insulin's roles in the body is trigger fat cells, and high levels of insulin causes the the fat cells to gather all the energy (glucose) in the blood and store it as fat. The body then can't access this energy and starts to assume it's hungry again. So you get you get your next sugary craving and the cycle continues.:)

Sugar = Fat

Most people skim the sugar content of their food and only read the the 'fat' or 'carb' content on the label while largely underestimating the third factor relating to weight gain. The reality is that all refined sugars are simplified pure carbs (the worst kind of carbs).

Your daily requirement of sugar is only 10 teaspoons (one can of fizzy drink). If you drink 5 cups of tea a day with 2 teaspoons of sugar then virtually EVERYTHING ELSE you consume in that day will contain excess sugar -- not just your fizzy drinks. At let's face it, many people do drink that much tea (+sugar) so if they have just one can of coke it's excessive.:pac:

The only thing fizzy drinks are good for is unblocking the sink or a cheap way to descale your kettle. It also makes a good toilet cleaner.

And quenching my thirst...i'm not fat and i drink fizzy drinks at least 4-5 times a week, let people make their own choices (good or bad) and stop forcing this sh!te down peoples throats, it's all well and good to promote healthy eating and make people aware of the consequences of bad food but when you start telling people how to live their lives or that there idiots for eating this or that then your crossing a line (Not aimed at you paramite)

Son Of A Vidic · 23-06-2014 05:21PM

Iwannahurl wrote: »

Fiscal policy is part of a multi-faceted approach, and an important one at that.

Yes a fiscal policy which at its core, has a multifaceted all encompassing approach to taxation that has nothing to do with our health or the health of the nations children.

23-06-2014 05:24PM

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

Dear me, do you seriously think exercise and an active lifestyle play no role in controlling obesity? Exercise is a core component to any solution and claiming it is not is nonsensical. Now read back and you will also note that I specifically mentioned education and accessibility as being key in fighting obesity.

The extra half an hour per week of activity a fat kid has no interest in and encourages more dislike of that activity is going to have an awfully small overall effect. The ones who would be playing sports outside school are also unlikely to have much effect on them.

Son Of A Vidic · 23-06-2014 05:36PM

Deleted User wrote: »

The extra half an hour per week of activity a fat kid has no interest in and encourages more dislike of that activity is going to have an awfully small overall effect. The ones who would be playing sports outside school are also unlikely to have much effect on them.

Why did the kid become fat? Who made the kid fat? I also mentioned previously that exercise participation should a daily requirement in school, note I said daily and not a mere extra class per week. I'm also not just talking about Secondary school. I'm talking about the entire education pathway. Health education and exercise should be instigated at source and not when a kid enters Secondary school. Because at such at late stage, a kid is very often already well on the slippery slope to poor health and obesity.

flutered · 23-06-2014 05:44PM

will the nannys who require this tax, ensure that it goes to schools to provide proper pe for primary school kids, oh by the way will they the difference.

Paramite Pie · 23-06-2014 06:09PM

Hande hoche! wrote: »

Anything about diet/sugarfree drinks?

Well I imagine they'd be exempt from a sugar tax (:)) but they're not so great either. Most of the effects below are caused equally by both diet and sugary fizzy drinks.

Esophageal cancer was rare only 2 generations ago but is getting increasingly common. All fizzy drinks cause acid reflux (stomach acid rising up past the esophageal valve) and all that burping sends your stomach acid into the esophagus (which doesn't have the stomach lining to withstand it) cause gradual "mechanical" damage leading to an increase in cell mutations leading to increase risk of cancer. Enjoy diet coke.:pac:

Dehydration is one a relatively minor consequences of drinking diet coke (especially when you also drink other caffeine drinks). You see caffeine is a diuretic, meaning it makes you urinate. The more you drink the more you pee, and the more water you loose. This is hardly life-threatening (but can cause headaches and weaken the bodies defences) and sugary drinks also cause this. The bad part is that this makes you more thirsty, causing you to drink more - and the cycle repeats.

This makes a fizzy drink a bad mixer, making you get drunk quicker and making your hang over far worse than it needs to be.:cool:

Calcium is another concern. Both diet/sugar fizzy drinks contain phosphates and carbonates which upset the stomach PH, requiring the body to use up it's calcium to balance it out. Other organs are now depleted of calcium so the body starts stripping the calcium from your bones to resovle the issue. People who regularly drink fizzy drinks tend to have much higher risk of breaking/fracturing bones and Osteoporosis.

This can also affect the calcium in your teeth weakening them, and even worse, diet drinks are still acidic so they erode your teeth a lot.

Obesity - Artificial sweeteners may contain no sugar but they still trigger the reward centre of your brain related to sugar, causing your body to crave sugar. Sugar is hard to find in nature so we're evolved to have very strong cravings for sugar.
According to the link below, downing just two or more cans a day can increase waistlines by 500%!! (that one is news to me!:eek:)

http://healthyliving.msn.com/health-wellness/7-side-effects-of-drinking-diet-soda

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/diet-soda-health_b_2698494.html

23-06-2014 06:12PM

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

Why did the kid become fat?

The parents.

Who made the kid fat?

The parents.

I also mentioned previously that exercise participation should a daily requirement in school, note I said daily and not a mere extra class per week. I'm also not just talking about Secondary school. I'm talking about the entire education pathway. Health education and exercise should be instigated at source and not when a kid enters Secondary school. Because at such at late stage, a kid is very often already well on the slippery slope to poor health and obesity.

Where that fits in is a bit of an issue. I would think in Primary School the half an hour running around at lunchtime could count towards physical activity.

darkpagandeath · 23-06-2014 06:14PM

Lets just have a think now. Over 20 odd years ago when I was in school you would have 1 fat person in your year maybe 2 why was that ? Same sugary drinks food were available then. Roll on to now 2 car family's no time to play with kids or let them play outside drive them to school. Parents not saying NO to their children out of fear of child abuse. MacDonald's treated as a meal, heck even birthday parties the norm in fast food joints. I don't think it's the sugar people who is to blame here. What tax will fix these issues ?

ScumLord · 23-06-2014 06:18PM

I think all this is so pointless. It's not like if you stop smoking and eating bad food you're going to be able to avoid ending up in and out of a hospital for the last 5 - 10 years of your life.

Even if you do everything to the book you're probably going to die of some type of cancer/prolonged organ failure. All that happens to the people that do all the wrong things is early onset of underlying conditions. If they avoided all the bad things they'd probably still die of the same conditions just much later.

Unless healthy people just drop down dead on the spot when their time is up this tax isn't going to do anything to reduce hospital admissions.

Sam Kade · 23-06-2014 06:19PM

darkpagandeath wrote: »

Lets just have a think now. Over 20 odd years ago when I was in school you would have 1 fat person in your year maybe 2 why was that ? Same sugary drinks food were available then. Roll on to now 2 car family's no time to play with kids or let them play outside drive them to school. Parents not saying NO to their children out of fear of child abuse. MacDonald's treated as a meal, heck even birthday parties the norm in fast food joints. I don't think it's the sugar people who is to blame here. What tax will fix these issues ?

Heck no, I never go to fast food joints :mad: bloody American slang.

23-06-2014 06:25PM

ScumLord wrote: »

I think all this is so pointless. It's not like if you stop smoking and eating bad food you're going to be able to avoid ending up in and out of a hospital for the last 5 - 10 years of your life.

Even if you do everything to the book you're probably going to die of some type of cancer/prolonged organ failure. All that happens to the people that do all the wrong things is early onset of underlying conditions. If they avoided all the bad things they'd probably still die of the same conditions just much later.

Unless healthy people just drop down dead on the spot when their time is up this tax isn't going to do anything to reduce hospital admissions.

Be careful with that kind of thinking.
Funnily enough of all the people I can think of who had smoking-related deaths they all went very quickly after diagnosis.

Tin Foil Hat · 23-06-2014 06:26PM

Celticfire wrote: »

Is this like one of those shampoo surveys??? 72% of 81 people agree....

Indeed. Suvreys always say exactly what those who commission them want them to say. Statistics quoted by people with agendas should be taken with a massive pinch of salt.

There's already a massive tax of 23% on most junk foods and it doesn't bloody work.

Son Of A Vidic · 23-06-2014 06:26PM

Deleted User wrote: »

The parents.

The parents.

Precisely, fat kid didn't get fat without the parents.

Deleted User wrote: »

Where that fits in is a bit of an issue. I would think in Primary School the half an hour running around at lunchtime could count towards physical activity.

Yes I agree, but I was suggesting including exercise and health education in daily class time and not just lunchtime.

kowloon · 23-06-2014 06:28PM

Paramite Pie wrote: »

When the body consumes more sugar than it can handle at once (ie one 330ml can of coke) it causes a "insulin burst" where your pancreas pumps up the insulin levels to try to expel the toxic (yes toxic) levels of glucose. Normally you should vomit immediately from drinking the fizzy drink but the added phosphoric acid suppresses the natural gag reflex. The fact that they even need to add that should be enough of a warning sign.

There are plenty of fruit juices that have higher levels of sugar than Coke. Your kidneys filter out the extra glucose, it's their job, and 'fizzy' drinks aren't the only way of loading on the sugar. Consistently high BG levels can damage your kidneys, but consistently high BG levels are something you would go to the doctor about, not the result of downing bladder testing quantities of Fanta at the cinema. I've been manually giving myself insulin bursts for years, plenty were a lot higher than that required to counteract a can of coke.

Lapua Magnum · 23-06-2014 06:31PM

Gannicus wrote: »

I would wholeheartedly support it once they are willing to cut the tax on fruit and veg to promote healthy eating.

Nah we'll have to tax fruit as well:

Orange Juice - 10 teaspoons of sugar
Apple Juice - 11 teaspoons of sugar
Grape Juice - 15 teaspoons of sugar
Coca-Cola - 10 teaspoons of sugar
[Reference: Harvard University - How Sweet Is It? filetype:pdf ]

The Nanny State knows best.

23-06-2014 06:35PM

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

Yes I agree, but I was suggesting including exercise and health education in daily class time and not just lunchtime.

The ones who are interested and have encouragement at home will take it in, same as with anything else and same as if the "lessons" weren't there.

Specialun · 23-06-2014 06:37PM

Government dont give a fook about fat babies

Its just another revenue stream

Why dont they use the tax from this kinda produce to educate the masses instead of sending it off to ze germans...surely shirly over time this would mean less intake of sugar?

Instead of further educating kids on the dangers of fatty foods/ sugerary drink they find it much easier to just punish the lot even tne responsible

I assume they could also decrease the tax on fruit and veg? That way families can eat more healty food

Will they fook

darkpagandeath · 23-06-2014 06:42PM

Specialun wrote: »

Government dont give a fook about fat babies

Its just another revenue stream

Why dont they use the tax from this kinda produce to educate the masses instead of sending it off to ze germans...surely shirly over time this would mean less intake of sugar?

Instead of further educating kids on the dangers of fatty foods/ sugerary drink they find it much easier to just punish the lot even tne responsible

I assume they could also decrease the tax on fruit and veg? That way families can eat more healty food

Will they fook

Plenty of your ahem healthy alternative 5 a day fruit drinks will contain to much sugar and face this tax.

smellmepower · 23-06-2014 08:55PM

Only time I'd drink Coke/Pepsi is the very odd time I'd get 'food' in McDonalds or KFC.Is it possible to get a bottle of water with the meal deals they offer,instead of a huge coke that I hardly drink and end up throwing 2/3 of in the annoying automatic bins?

EyeSight · 23-06-2014 09:06PM

Again another lazy irish solution to a problem. tax it or ban it.
Punishing everyone for a problem not everyone has

Only time I'd drink Coke/Pepsi is the very odd time I'd get 'food' in McDonalds or KFC.Is it possible to get a bottle of water with the meal deals they offer,instead of a huge coke that I hardly drink and end up throwing 2/3 of in the annoying automatic bins?

McDonalds allow this. Not sure about others. If you ask i assume they would allow it

23-06-2014 09:44PM

Paramite Pie wrote: »

Normally you should vomit immediately from drinking the fizzy drink but the added phosphoric acid suppresses the natural gag reflex.

Out of interest did you make that up yourself or is it someone else's imagination?

Rough Sleeper · 23-06-2014 11:15PM

Paramite Pie wrote: »

When the body consumes more sugar than it can handle at once (ie one 330ml can of coke) it causes a "insulin burst" where your pancreas pumps up the insulin levels to try to expel the toxic (yes toxic) levels of glucose. Normally you should vomit immediately from drinking the fizzy drink but the added phosphoric acid suppresses the natural gag reflex. The fact that they even need to add that should be enough of a warning sign.

So what's stopping me from vomiting if I eat a big slice of cake, or a large apple for that matter?

SweetChaos · 23-06-2014 11:47PM

Looks like ill be crossing the border and buying my fizzy drinks there.. fuk that tax

Geuze · 24-06-2014 09:02AM

Specialun wrote: »

I assume they could also decrease the tax on fruit and veg? That way families can eat more healty food

Will they fook

VAT on fruit and veg is 0%.

Lapua Magnum · 24-06-2014 09:11AM

Geuze wrote: »

VAT on fruit and veg is 0%.

Yes but why would they put a sugar supertax on Coke when Orange Juice has the exact same sugar content??

Dravokivich · 24-06-2014 09:23AM

Paramite Pie wrote: »

Sugar = Fat

Most people skim the sugar content of their food and only read the the 'fat' or 'carb' content on the label while largely underestimating the third factor relating to weight gain. The reality is that all refined sugars are simplified pure carbs (the worst kind of carbs).

I thought sugar was listed as a carb?

The issue isn't one consumable item or one common ingredient. It's overall consumption. Looking solely at foods or beverages to increase tax on is missing the point entirely.

Clearlier · 24-06-2014 09:24AM

Lapua Magnum wrote: »

Yes but why would they put a sugar supertax on Coke when Orange Juice has the exact same sugar content??

It's not just orange juice, what about all the sweets? I agree with you that it should be on orange juice but I see that as a reason to push for a more comprehensive tax not one not to do it at all.

The best argument against the tax is that I expect it is likely to be quite regressive but then so are the taxes on tobacco.

Survey finds majority support tax on sugary drinks

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