Sugar tax ‘should be widened to include baby food’

A TAX on soft drinks should be widened to include sweetened milk-based drinks with added sugar and the Government should also take action to eliminate added sugar in baby foods, the Chief Medical Officer for England has recommended.

In her latest annual report, Professor Dame Sally Davies makes a series of suggestions for how to radically improve the nation’s health by 2040, by reducing inequalities and using new technology and research such as artificial intelligence (AI).

To tackle the obesity crisis, she recommends the Government review the use of financial disincentives in relation to foods that are high in sugar and salt along with incentives to increase fruit and vegetable consumption.

She also want to see Ministers set more ambitious targets for salt reduction in food and introduce a specific target to halve current inequalities in childhood obesity by 2030 or sooner.

Prof Davies’s report stresses the importance of collecting data and she suggests a new Health Index, which would be tracked alongside the nation’s GDP.

This will capture the social determinants of health, risk factors such as obesity and outcomes such as cancer survival, which she said would also help reduce health inequalities by 2040.

“A more equal, healthier society is within our grasp but we need to be brave, bold and seize the moment,” she said.

“Health is our main asset as a nation – a healthier population translates to a healthier economy.”

Prof Davies’ report highlights areas of promise for AI, including in imaging, which she said will diagnose conditions more speedily, regardless of where in the country the patient lives.

She said that if cancer survival was equitable, 10,000 deaths within five years of diagnosis would be avoidable.