Experts call for tax on sugary drinks to be extended to foods

TAXES on sugary drinks should be extended to all sugary foods, according to a report by three international obesity experts.

They call for a complete ban all advertising of sugary drinks, discontinuing all government food subsidies, especially to commodity crops such as sugar which contribute to health problems, and a ban on all companies associated with sugary products from sponsoring sports events.

It said these methods were successful in curbing the tobacco industry.

The report for the UK’s health service was conducted by Dr Aseem Malhota, a NHS consultant cardiologist, Professor Grant Schofield of the Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand, and Professor Robert Lustig of the University of California San Francisco.

They said governments should address the food industry with the same methods they used for tackling smoking.

Last week, a sugar tax on sweets, cakes and biscuits was proposed by Fine Gael Senator Catherine Noone, who believes that a wide-ranging levy on sugary snacks would be more effective than a tax on sugary drinks alone.

‘Sweet snacks provide twice as much sugar in the diet than sugary drinks,’ Senator Noone said. ‘As such, I believe the addition of the levy could tangibly assist in the battle against the bulge.

‘Researchers from the universities of Cambridge and Oxford have estimated the addition of a 10% levy to the price of confectionery, cakes, biscuits and chocolate could lead to a 7% drop in the purchase of such goods’, said Ms Noone.

‘The World Health Organisation has predicted Ireland is on course to be one of the fattest nations by 2030,’ she said, adding: ‘We are sleepwalking into a major epidemic in Ireland.’

According to the European Commission, one in four Irish children are overweight or obese.