Fri, Sep-15-23, 00:35
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Plan: Muscle Centric
Stats: 238/153/160
BF:
Progress: 109%
Location: UK
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Health alliance agrees: Britain needs a sugar tax
Quote:
Health alliance agrees: Britain needs a sugar tax
Dozens of organisations urge the government to do more on obesity
New taxes are needed to cut adult sugar intake and rates of cancer, diabetes and heart problems, dozens of health organisations have urged in a report.
The authors, the Recipe for Change coalition, include the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Royal Society for Public Health, British Heart Foundation, Association of Directors of Public Health and the charity Sustain.
The broad membership will add to pressure on the government to go further in its efforts to tackle high rates of obesity and improve the national diet.
Katharine Jenner, director of the Obesity Health Alliance, another of the coalition’s members, said: “Hundreds of policies to address obesity have failed to deliver, because they have relied on individuals having to change their behaviour, in a food environment that is rigged against them.
“The food we buy is jam packed with sugar and most of our food comes ready salted — we need to put healthier food on the shelves by introducing a levy on industry to encourage them to change their recipes.”
Modelling from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine suggests an industry-wide levy on sugar and salt could reduce the salt intake of an average adult by up to 0.9g per day, and of sugar by up to 15g per day.
The recommended daily intake is no more than 6g of salt and up to 30g of sugar. Men on average consume 9.2g of salt and 55g of sugar every day, and women consume 7.6g of salt and 44g of sugar.
Reducing intake would prevent almost two million cases of chronic disease over 25 years, the modelling suggests. That includes over a million cases of cardiovascular disease, more than half a million of type 2 diabetes, and thousands of cases of cancer and respiratory disease.
It could also cut the number of overweight and obese Britons by up to 10.9 per cent. A quarter of adults in England are obese.
The health and productivity gains could be worth £77.9 billion to the economy over the same time period, the modelling suggests.
In 2021, Henry Dimbleby, then the government food tsar, recommended a levy in his National Food Strategy. He resigned this year, criticising ministers’ inaction in tackling obesity, after five years in post.
Tony Blair, the former prime minister, has told The Times Health Commission, a year-long inquiry into health and care, that he backed taxes on junk food and tougher regulation for the food industry.
Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, told Times Radio that he would not support any public health measures that made “the price of a family shop more expensive”, but accepted “a role for more effective regulation”.
The “sugar tax” on soft drinks, formally known as the Soft Drinks Industry Levy, has cut the amount people consume and has driven industry efforts to reformulate, according to government analysis.
However, reduction targets for salt and sugar in other products remain voluntary, and have failed to hit government targets.
Barbara Crowther, children’s food campaign manager at Sustain, said the group was “calling on government to build on what works”.
The campaign says the levy could work either by being applied at a rate of £3/kg on sugar and £6/kg on salt to all sugar and salt used in manufactured foods or in restaurants and catering, or by targeting products in specific, non-staple categories such as confectionery, biscuits, cakes, desserts, crisps and savoury snacks.
Crowther said a new industry levy “could also be a great way to raise revenues from a junk food industry that is making huge profits at the expense of our health”.
Polling suggests broad public support. Sixty-eight per cent said they would back further food levies if the revenues raised were invested in children’s health, and 73 per cent supporting action by ministers to require food manufacturers to reduce sugar and salt from everyday foods.
A government spokesman said: “We have already brought in measures to reduce the amount of sugar and salt in foods, particularly those aimed at children.
“Our Soft Drinks Industry Levy has nearly halved the amount of sugar in soft drinks, while the sugar reduction programme has significantly reduced the amount of sugar in foods popular with children, including breakfast cereals and yogurts.
“Thanks to our salt reduction programme, the amount of salt in food has fallen by around 20 per cent, helping to prevent nearly 70,000 heart attacks and strokes while reducing pressure on the NHS.
“We are also taking firm action to tackle obesity, which costs the NHS around £6.5 billion a year, including by restricting the placement of less healthy foods in stores and online and introducing calorie labelling on menus.”
Big problem of obesity
In 2020, with much fanfare, Boris Johnson, then the prime minister, announced a “world-leading” strategy to reduce obesity.
He was said to have been scared into action after needing treatment in hospital for Covid, which he put down to his excess weight.
However, memories fade and before he had left office, the government was facing accusations that it was backtracking.
In May last year, Johnson delayed a ban on buy-one-get-one-free (bogof) deals on junk food and a pre-9pm watershed for television adverts. Both have since been further delayed to 2025.
The government claims that it is still “taking firm action to tackle obesity”, including by restricting where stores can display less healthy foods, and introducing calorie information on menus.
Announcing the delay to bogof in June, Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, said: “At a time when household budgets are under continuing pressure from the global rise in food prices, it is not fair for government to restrict the options available to consumers on their weekly shop.”
Labour also appears reticent to make any promises that will increase pressure on consumers during the cost of living crisis. However, campaigners say that with the NHS spending about £6.5 billion a year on treating obesity, the cost of inaction must also be considered.
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https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...-2023-5zwtdccsl |
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