MPs mull SA’s sugary drink consumption stats

and finance committees that statistics showed the global average of Coca-Cola products consumed per person per year was 89. In South Africa in 2010, this number was 254 – a sharp rise since 1997, when it was 175.

She said South Africans had the second-highest consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages in children nine to 10 years old in the world – second only to the US.

Representing the Society for Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes, Dr Sundeep Ruder said South Africa was the most obese nation in sub-Saharan Africa.

He said 70% of South African women and 40% of men were either obese or overweight.

One in four girls and one in five boys between the ages of two and 14 were also either obese or overweight.

Ruder said that because these beverages entered the bloodstream quickly, they stressed the pancreas.

They also left the body unsatisfied and people ended up eating more, contributing to weight gain. He said consuming one sugar-sweetened beverage a day increased a person’s risk of developing type II diabetes by 26%.

The Department of Health’s Dr Malcolm Freeman said South Africans’ poor diets were a burden on the state, which is struggling under the burden of high and rising rates of non-communicable diseases like diabetes and heart disease.

And while almost all presenters admitted that the tax would not solve the problems by themselves, parliament heard that a tax was the most cost-effective way to start addressing the problem.

Fiscal measures like a sugar tax cost only 20c per head, while other interventions like school interventions cost R11.10 a head and physician counselling R11.80 a head.

Mass media campaigns cost around R7.50 a head and food labelling interventions around R2.50 a head.

BevSA, which represents drinks manufacturers like Coca-Cola, Red Bull and Tiger Brands, however, said that the tax would cause serious problems for the industry.

BevSA’s Mapule Ncanywa told the committees that together their industry created 300 000 jobs and contributed billions in annual taxes.

She said the tax could contribute to a 25% loss in jobs.

— TMG