Taxing sugary drinks
Sugary drinks in New Zealand may be the most unhealthy in the world, according to a new study. Researchers led by Waikato University’s Lynne Chepulis found that sugar was even added to fruit juices.
This shows both the depth of the sugar problem and why action is needed. We are the third most obese people on earth, and sugary drinks are an important part of the problem. If we don’t act, the epidemic of diabetes and heart disease will worsen.
Health Minister David Clark rejects the idea of a sugary drinks tax, although about 30 countries now have one and it is recommended both by the World Health Organisation and a very large number of medical authorities and national medical associations.
Clark however is threatening to take action unless the industry can show him what it plans to do to reduce sugar levels in processed food and drink. The evidence suggests strongly that this kind of voluntary self-regulation won’t work. The industry makes too much money out of sugar to seriously change its ways. Clark and other politicians are fighting a losing battle over this.
Some say sugar is an individual moral problem, and that people should exercise more self-control. This won’t work. Governments must treat the sugar and fat problem as public health issues requiring a range of evidencebased solutions.
The least the government can do is require large and easy-tofollow health warnings on sugary and fruit drinks, with icons showing how much sugar they contain.
It also needs to take action against the promotion of sugary drinks (and junk food) to young children. Again, there is no real argument against this, since children are not independent adults who can resist the ads and the products they promote.
New Zealand should also bring in a sugary drinks tax, as Britain is due to do this year, and as many other countries have already done. The critics claim that there is no good evidence that the tax reduces consumption in the long run. But the evidence is steadily mounting that it does.
Politicians fear both Nanny state arguments and the claim that the taxes are unfair to the poor. But the poor also stand to gain the greatest health benefits from reducing their sugar intake.
Politicians should also be wary of the political lobbying of the sugar and food industries. On the one hand the industry claims that the taxes don’t work. On the other hand it has poured many millions into trying to stop the tax.
This is a contradiction which cannot be squared. What it really shows is that the industry has well-grounded fears that the tax will reduce its market and its profits. In this the sugar industry is repeating the history of Big Tobacco, which denied the mounting evidence that smoking was harmful and fought desperately against all antismoking public health measures.
The political clash between the industry and governments is real, and in some third world countries has become seriously ugly. A great deal is at stake.