Put down your 3 for £1 strawberry laces, fizzy fangs and chocolate buttons. Unless you have been living under a rock, (although to be fair rocks are much better than essays at the moment) you will be aware that the sugar tax debate is a-raging. It all started a few months ago when Jamie Oliver produced Sugar Rush, a programme all about how bad our sugar addiction has become. The programme looked at an overwhelming amount of evidence suggesting that it is the little white cubes (and not the fats) that are to blame for the obesity epidemic.
You only need to look at the facts. We’ve got good at eating less and less fat, yet the rate of obesity is still skyrocketing. In the UK, dubbed “The Fat Man of Europe”, the number of overweight people rose by 300% in three decades! And what has accompanied this rise? Our consumption of sugar. And sadly, it’s not just making us obese – increased sugar consumption is also related to heart disease, stroke, kidney failure and tooth decay. As a result, the sugary stuff is costing us lots of sweet sweet dollar, with obesity alone estimated to cost the NHS £5.1 billon each year.
In his mission to take action against sugar and its health problemos, Jamie Oliver is petitioning to introduce a sugar tax. Experts supporting the campaign believe that adding a tax of just 7p to each can of sweetened drink could prevent around 200,000 cases of obesity AND the estimated £1 billion generated from the tax could be spent on nutrition education in schools – genius.
We Brits seem to be loving the idea of the sugar tax, with over 150,000 signing Jamie’s petition. And yet, one Mr David Cameron is a less of a fan, saying that he would never legislate the levy because he thinks that there are other things we can do instead.
So, would the tax even work? Look no further than Mexicoke…
Although we typically associate Mexico as a land of sombreros, fajitas and pretty much anything off the Wahaca menu, they also have another big love. Mexicoke – the Mexican Coca-Cola. In fact, welcome to the number one fizzy-drink-consuming country in the world, where the average Mexican drinks 163 litres of Coca-Cola a year. This is nearly half a litre a day. Their love is so great that babies typically drink fizzy drinks instead of milk and in some parts of the country, Mexicoke is even considered to have magical properties.
(Photo credit: Goodle)
Although, obviously, Houston, we have a problem. As soon as Mexico’s love of sugar increased, so did its scary statistics:
Numero uno – It was recently estimated that sugary drinks kill 24,000 Mexicans each year.
Numero dos – From 2000 to 2006, cases of diabetes doubled in Mexico.
And Numero tres – During the same time period, childhood obesity rose by 40%.
Accordingly, Mexico decided to introduce a tax to its sugary drinks last January. Although causing somewhat of a kafuffle with their drinks industry, public health experts found that the tax has caused a 6% decrease in sugary drink consumption. See you later obesity + all its diseases! With the evidence mounting, David Cameron’s therefore got quite a bit of pressure on him. And because of his denial, cities are now taking action into their own hands. Brighton and Hove recently declared themselves as Britain’s first Sugar Smart city, introducing a voluntary sugar tax in its food and drink shops. And good ol’ Boris has even said he’s thinking about introducing the tax in London. Yet, Cameron still reckons that we could be getting up to other things.
So, what could David possibly have up his sleeves?
While Jamie Oliver is really loving the sugar tax, he also has some other ideas for reducing sugar consumption, in his manifesto. These include banning all junk food marketing on TV before 9pm (sugar is basically the new swearing) and showing the sugar content on all sugary drinks in teaspoons (’cause who knows what on earth 5 grams is.)
(Photo Credit: Instagram)
Mexico has also become pretty snazzy in exercising off its bulge. It has recently installed squatting machines at stations in the capital and if commuters squat ten times, they get a free train ticket. Hats off to Dubai, however, the ultimate winner with its ‘Lose Your Weight In Gold’ initiative. Back in 2013, 10,000 Dubai residents on a weight loss plan were rewarded in real gold. (I’m not too sure if our Government will be agreeing to that one.)
So for now, whatever we decide to do, it’s a “see you later” to sugar. You may taste lovely but you are totes doing more harm than good, and apparently we are all sweet enough. It was good whilst it lasted though. I mean, after all those years, we definitely glucose.