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Time to tax sugar to combat health crisis: experts

Time to tax sugar to combat health crisis: experts
AFP – 4 hrs ago

Sugar should be identified alongside alcohol and tobacco as a health danger, and governments should tax sweetened drinks and food as part of their efforts to combat it.

So says a commentary, published on Thursday in the journal Nature as part of a widening debate among doctors and policymakers about food fiscality and health.

Around 35 million people die each year of non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes and a wave of obesity is unfurling from rich countries to developing economies, say three US academics who authored the piece.

Tobacco and alcohol are already regulated by governments to protect public health, "but one of the primary culprits behind this worldwide health crisis (is) unchecked," they say.

A levy on added sugars would help meet the growing costs of meeting sugar-related health problems and discourage consumption, they suggest.

In the United States, the government is currently considering a soda tax that would raise the price of a can of fizzy drink by around 10-12 US cents, bringing in some 14 billion dollars a year of revenue.

But "statistical modelling suggests that the price would have to double to significantly reduce soda consumption -- so a one-dollar can should cost two dollars," say the trio.

Other suggestions include restricting the sale of added-sugar food and drinks in schools and letting states curb the number of fast-food outlets and convenience stores in poorer neighbourhoods and provide incentives to set up grocery stores and fresh-food markets.

The authors are pediatrics and obesity specialist Robert Lustig and health policy researchers Laura Schmidt and Claire Brindis, all at the University of California at San Francisco.

Consumption of sugar worldwide has tripled in the past 50 years, adding hugely to daily average colorie intake, especially in the United States.

More and more scientific evidence, says the commentary, suggests chronic sugar consumption has a slow-moving, complex but devastating role in metabolic syndromes such as hypertension and diabetes.

This class of diseases cost the US alone 65 billion dollars a year in lost productivity and 150 billion in medical care, it says.

http://news.yahoo.com/time-tax-sugar-combat-health-crisis-experts-1...

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Comment by Cheri Heeter on February 5, 2012 at 7:08pm: Big Brother is getting bigger

Comment by TERESA SMITH on February 5, 2012 at 4:31pm: Makes me want to buy a 25lb. bag of sugar and spoon feed myself until Im dizzy with the sweetness. This IMHO, is just to get more money out of us. They could care less about our health. If they did, the borders would be closed to help shut down drugs that come in. They would NOT be putting our border agents in jail, time and time again and NOT be giving a free pass to drug dealers. Sugar? Im giddy on a sugar high now.

Comment by Norma J. Sears on February 5, 2012 at 2:59pm: Joooooooooooonnh,

I have diabettes and have to rely on saccharine. My friend told me it was terrible for me, and I replied, "I guess I should have died 40 years ago." Aspartane is worst. Splenda I like but not much better either.

Yep. My top teeth are gone. Rotted out at age 60. LOL

Comment by John Tripp on February 5, 2012 at 12:39pm: It must be Tuesday, the government hjas found another incomplete study, which of course will require more funding, for any conceivable malady or crisis the globe is in.

Yep ! It's sugar that's responsible for obesity, not parental control or self respect. Good thing sugar did not exist until recently or we would be up the creek without an all day sucker.

So we ban sugar, now the man made substitutes rot the enamel off your teeth. That's one way to slow down obesity. I smell a saccharine sweet deal between a politician and his donors.

But is it brown sugar or processed sugar, which by the way the body can not tell apart when ingested - a simple sugar is a simple sugar. Just like wonder bread is just as nutritious as a twenty grain bread baked by virgin Quakers for thirty dollars a loaf. It doesn't make as good a stool sample, and that is all your body knows - a floater instead of a sinker. One could argue the wonder bread is more efficient because your body breaks down it's mass into the simple and complex carbohydrates more completely. Never - NEVER, take a the benefits of a good dump for granted !

Comment by justfolk on February 5, 2012 at 12:00pm: Legislators and many others seem to think that Taxation will cure all our collective woes.

ridiculous, insane legislation is growing like a cancer. Makes me wonder what has infected the brains of our "leaders"....'cause this stuff is barking mad!

Comment by Norma J. Sears on February 5, 2012 at 11:39am: God great me the strength to get Government out of my pocket and my life.

We are entitled by our creator to smoke, eat, carouse, and drink ourselves to death. We will pay for it one way or another without government taking a share.

Comment by JeansBrother on February 5, 2012 at 9:06am: I am beginning to think that every government official should be taxed on the air he breathes. The resulting pollution from their exhales is detrimental to the health of our country and all of its citizens.

Comment by Jodi180 on February 3, 2012 at 6:46pm: Just heard Beck say to buy up sugar...will be as good as gold.

Comment by Shadrach on February 3, 2012 at 1:32pm: Choice, the ability to choose!! That's what set this country apart from any other on the planet!! No King, no "Ruler", a Constitution, laws to govern the people of this great country!! Our ability to choose who we want to govern the country for four years, using those laws!! But let us choose how to live our life, and not strap us down by overburdening every aspect of our lives with unnescessary "Rules" that restrict our Freedom!!! Let us raise our children and grandchildren, we don't need the State to tell us how!! Sometimes we make bad choices, but how are we supposed to learn if we don't make mistakes?? A country of Nannybots will not be a great country!!!!

Comment by Hugh Akston on February 3, 2012 at 10:49am: I ate lunch yesterday at a buffet style place. I saw two women who were picking over the salad bar, a few pieces of lettuce, cucumber and tomato; a very small salad with a pile of creamy dressing on it. In the other hand they both had a plate piled high with deserts on them. They were both in the obese category.

They had a choice of meat and vegetables available to them but their choice was for the sweets, again it was THEIR CHOICE, they were both over 21, making a conscious decision on what to eat. Limiting choices in poor neighborhoods will do no good as they will still take the choice of convenience. I have seen programs giving incentives to put better stores in poor neighborhoods, they d o not last because of the lack of customers and competition from the liquor stores.

Maybe these Doctors (or are they just Liberal Experts?) should stick to medicine (witch Doctoring.) and stay out of economics?

Good post.

God Bless.