Sugary drinks: pay as you go?
Edmund Stubbs, 12 March 2015
On billboards we have recently observed plasticene figures sitting beside cups overflowing with sugar cubes to illustrate the amount of sugar we are consuming with every ‘fizzy’ drink. Campaigners for child health have today further proposed implementing a tax on sugary drinks in an effort to curb their consumption. They suggest this tax could be set as high as 20p per litre. It is calculated such a tax would, in diminishing demand for sugary drinks, save the NHS £15 million per year by reducing consequent susceptibility to diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer. The saving for the NHS might, in fact, be even be more.
Sugary drinks are in essence an unseen source of weight gain. When most of us think about becoming overweight we think of it as the result of eating unhealthily. Although it is true that many now try to reduce sugar in their tea and eat smaller, healthier portions of food, less will consider giving up say a can of coke with their lunch time meal or of switching to a sugar free alternative.
If we were to see someone shovel two or three teaspoons of sugar into their tea we would often view this as unhealthy and perhaps slightly worrying. If however, a person were to put 6 teaspoons into a single cup, most would be shocked and even concerned for the drinker’s health. Nevertheless, when we see someone sipping a can of coke, with yes, around six teaspoons of sugar as part of its ingredients, we are not usually shocked at all. A can of a sugary fizzy drink can easily have up to two thirds of the calories of a bar of chocolate.
If a new tax, as intended, were to reduce consumption of these drinks, it could indeed help reduce those diseases known to be linked with being overweight. However, if people also understand why the tax is being introduced it could be much more effective.
The proposed tax might be seen by some as more nannying from the state, but as with other sin taxes they can be justified. Not by altering behaviour for an individual for their ‘own good’, but from compensating society in general for the extensive cost unhealthy activities have on the overall tax burden. Obesity is one of the diseases of excess that are now damaging our nation’s health and threatening the NHS’s sustainability.
Sin taxes do not eliminate people’s free choice as to what they want to eat, drink and do. However, it seems reasonable to impose taxes on sugary drinks known to cause weight gain and thus increased usage of health care resources. In effect, people would be paying now for what, as a result of their behaviour, they will be needing from the state later.
In short this new tax could save money spent on intervention by reducing treatment demands while raising money to be used in preventative awareness campaigns, all this while allowing a free, but better informed choice of lifestyle for each citizen.
Edmund Stubbs, Healthcare Researcher, @edmundstubbs1