How one of the most obese countries on earth took on the soda giants

November 4 2015 by in Big Soda, Sugar/fructose

Almost a year after Mexico introduced a tax on sugary drinks, other countries look to Mexico to see the effects of the law, and several have already followed suit (including Chile and Barbados).

The road to a tax on soda was long and winding. A fight between the soda companies and the government headed by President Enrique Peña Nieto, which still goes on today. Here’s an interesting – and very long – article on it:

The Guardian: How One of the Most Obese Countries on Earth Took On the Soda Giants

Earlier

Mexican Sugary Drinks Tax Remains

What a Big Tax on Soft Drinks Can Do

Soda Banned from New Zealand Hospitals

5 comments

1
Nate
November 4 2015
You don't need to know Spanish to get the message and enjoy the humor in the "12 Spoonfuls"
ad. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tbzNh618tU
2
Helgi
November 4 2015
At the same time Icelanders keep on getting fat. Sugar tax was introduced in Iceland in march 2013 and did not result in the reduction of sugar consumption - that know one knows about - but the government agency in charge of the overseeing the sugar consumption did not do any follow up studies. So the Icelandic government removed the sugar tax at the end of 2014. Unfortunately one victory for the cola companies.
3
Bob Niland
November 4 2015
From the Guardian "…trying to promote and celebrate alternative traditional drinks. In April she and colleagues organised a festival of pozol, an indigenous corn drink…"

Mexico, like most places, has a lot to figure out yet. A typical pozol recipe (without the sweeteners commonly added these days) is about 13 grams net carb, a significant fraction of the whole meal budget on many LCHF diets. Corn, of course, presents other issues as well, including the suspect zein protein, pesticide uptake (assured with glyphosate-resistant GMO corn) or perhaps being a pesticide (Bt GMO corn), and either are likely gut biome antagonists (which has a huge obesity connection).

Traditional Mexican food is further likely to include a lot more corn, and wheat, and they also need go back to using lard, and ditch the modern PUFA industrial grain and seed oils for cooking.

If they think they have it under control with a sugar tax, they are mistaken.
4
Donna
November 7 2015
Enacting a sugar tax without also limiting advertising for high sugar foods is absurd. It's punishing the addicts while giving government an incentive to keep the pushers pushing.
5
Hazel
November 11 2015
Giant corporations whose products are mostly sugar have to be quaking, and also countries that grow and sell tons of sugar every year...

Will we be paying new taxes to keep sugar corporations afloat? I suspect yes is the answer.

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