More meaningful tax on sugar

THE Malaysian Dental Association welcomes the recently announced tax on sugary drinks. It is a small nod towards the role sugar plays in the deteriorating health of our citizens.

Kudos also to Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad for his Deepavali greeting in Tamil that included gentle advice on not overindulging our sweet tooth, which may not only lose us our teeth but also our health.

This small nod in taxing sugary drinks pales in significance when compared with the enormity of our national health report card, which has marked us as the fattest people of Asia with the fastest growing diabetic rate in the world, second only to Saudi Arabia.

One of the major factors in this is our national obsession for super sweetening all our food and drinks.

Thus the small tax on sugary drinks is a timely albeit long-delayed rap on the national knuckles. But before we pat ourselves on the back, we should recognise that we will need to move towards a tax on sugar at source and also educate our young at school and widely disseminate to the public the deleterious effects of added sugar in our food and drinks.

Only a meaningful tax on sugar at source and a sustained, well-planned and -informed campaign against excessive consumption of sugar can make a dent on tooth loss and diabetes and all the concomitant diseases tied to it. It will enhance our quality of life and food and also lower healthcare costs substantially.

Dr Chow Kai Foo Immediate Past President On behalf of the president and council Malaysian Dental Association