|
 To be serious about cutting calorie intake by reducing sugar
consumption, they say, authorities would need to go in harder on
sugary drinks and much broader too - taking on less obvious targets
such as dairy products and processed savory foods.
Britain's finance minister George Osborne, announcing the tax on
Wednesday, said it would apply to drinks with a total sugar content
of more than 5 grams per 100 milliliters. A higher rate will apply
to drinks with more than 8 grams per 100 ml.
The exact rate has not been specified, but will be charged on
manufacturers and will come into force in April 2018. Fruit juices
and milk-based drinks will be exempt, as will diet sodas.
France, Belgium, Hungary and Mexico have all imposed some form of
tax on drinks with added sugar, while Scandinavian countries have
levied similar taxes, with varying degrees of success, for several
years.
The idea in Britain, Osborne said, is to target the sugar-laden cans
of sodas like cola and lemonade often consumed by children in lower
socio-economic groups - which studies show have higher rates of
obesity and tooth decay.
Public Health England says its data show the average five-year-old
consumes the equivalent of their body weight in sugar in the course
of a year.
Yet while health, nutrition and market experts said the planned levy
is a nod in the right direction toward encouraging healthier food
choices and forcing companies to cut calories, they are skeptical
about its likely real-life effect.
"Whether it will have any impact on sugar intake is uncertain," said
Tom Sanders, a professor of nutrition and dietetics at King's
College London.
"This is a step forward, but only one very small step," added Naveed
Sattar, a professor of metabolic medicine at Glasgow University.
That's partly because in the great British diet - fueled by obvious
sweet culprits such as cakes, biscuits and chocolate - sugar is
pervasive, and hidden in unusual places.
With many consumers already choosing lower-calorie sodas, the
British Soft Drink Association said the industry has already reduced
sugar intake by 13.6 percent since 2012, while sugar and calorie
intake from other food categories is increasing.
[to top of second column] |
Nicola Mallard, an analyst with Investec, noted that "substitution
is a big issue".
"Yes, people (may) stop drinking soft drinks, but they go and get
their sugar fix somewhere else," she told Reuters.
A National Diet and Nutrition Survey in published in 2014 found that
Britons get around 15 percent of their daily calories from added
sugar - way above recommended levels.
"If you asked the majority of the population how much sugar they
ate, the amount (they would say) would be much lower," said Gail
Rees, a nutrition expert at Plymouth University's School of
Biomedical and Healthcare Sciences.
"This is because so much of our western, processed diet contains
hidden levels of the stuff. Sugar is lurking in any number of
seemingly innocuous everyday foodstuffs, such as canned tomatoes,
salad dressings, peanut butter, breakfast cereals, bread, pasta –
the list goes on."
According to the state-funded National Health Service (NHS), up to
27 percent of Britons' daily intake of added sugar comes from table
sugar, jams, chocolate and sweets, while another fifth comes in
biscuits, buns and cakes.
Hidden below that is the 6 percent that comes in dairy products such
as flavored milks, yoghurts and desserts like ice cream, and at
least another 5 percent in savory processed foods like ready meals,
stir-in sauces, ketchup and even crisps.
On its nutrition information website, the NHS cites a study by the
consumer campaign group "Which?" that found some ready meals contain
more sugar than vanilla ice cream.
"This tax on its own..will not solve the obesity crisis," said
Glasgow's Sattar. "We need more legislation to force food companies
to make better quality food products and less unhealthy products
which contain less fat, salt and sugar."
(Editing by Anna Willard)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
