Efforts to cut back on sugar consumption and increase overall health appear to be working in other countries, and the United States may want to take note.
Sugar South of the Border
Mexico added a peso-per-liter tax on sugary drinks back in January of 2014, and two years later the country has seen a modest decrease in soda consumption. According to health officials, the tax has resulted in a 6 percent decline in sugary sweetened beverage (SSB) purchases after one year, and that trend continued as soda purchases are down 12 percent after two years.
Other findings from health officials include:
- Purchases of sugary beverages declined the most in the lowest socioeconomic group. They experienced a 9 percent drop in purchases after one year a 17 percent drop after two years.
- Consumption of non-taxed beverages (like water) increased 4 percent.
- In addition to a 10 percent sales tax on sugary sweetened beverages, Mexico also added an 8 percent sales tax on junk food, like candy, cookies and ice cream.
- Roughly 70 percent of adults in Mexico are overweight, and researchers believe even this modest decrease in sugar consumption has helped prevent diabetes rates from climbing at pre-tax rates.
“These results show that excise taxes on SSB’s are a promising way to lower purchased (and thus consumption) of unhealthy beverages, and people may be substituting with healthier beverages such as water,” said lead researcher Dr. Shu Wen Ng. “Many other countries are becoming convinced from the growing evidence of this policy strategy in the past few years and have also instituted SSB taxes (e.g., Chile, Barbados, France) lately; others are discussing it as an option.”
Dr. Ng added that you shouldn’t expect the US to follow suit. Sugar is subsidized in the US, meaning the government would be taxing partially subsidized products unless it first repealed the subsidy, and of course there would be immense lobbying form the sugar industry.
Sugar Across The Pond
Although they haven’t yet put the plan in place, researchers in Great Britain believe that by making small annual reductions in the sugar content of sugary sweetened beverages, they could greatly reduce overall obesity and diabetes rates.
Researchers suggest the a minor 8 percent reduction in sugar content in SSBs over the course of five years, leading to a 40 percent reduction in sugar after five years, could prevent more than a quarter of a million new cases of type 2 diabetes over the next two decades.
The Brits already tried similar measures with salt, and it had wondrous health effects, reducing stroke rates by 42 percent over an eight-year period.
“We’ve had a very successful salt-reduction program in the UK, setting salt-reduction targets for industry,” said Dr. Graham MacGregor. “It’s brilliant public-health policy. People are buying the same foods, yet their salt intake has fallen, and the companies don’t lose any profits because they’ve got the same sales, yet they’ve made the food more healthful. All we’re asking them for is to do the same for sugar as exemplified in sugar-sweetened drinks.”
