Yes – sugar taxes do help reduce consumption of junk food

January 22 2018 by , medical review by in Sugar/fructose, The obesity epidemic

Are junk-food taxes effective? Yes.

Experience from Hungary and Mexico show that these taxes do drive down consumption of sugar-rich food, especially among people who eat a lot of it.

But is it enough to combat the obesity epidemic? No. Healthy foods also need to become more available, and a possible solution is subsidizing differently. Stopping subsidies of corn, wheat and soy (crops used intensively in junk-food production) would likely have a big positive impact.

Vox: Mexico and Hungary tried junk food taxes — and they seem to be working

Sugar

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The debate wages. Is a calorie just a calorie? Or is there something specifically dangerous about fructose and carbohydrate calories? That's where Dr. Robert Lustig comes in.
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Earlier

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5 comments

1
Kris
January 22 2018
Be very careful what you ask for. Our keto lifestyles are not in line with the government's current teachings of a healthy diet. We could find our favorite fats taxed as part of the deterrent. The keto way of eating needs to have its own mass ad campaign to change the public's mind set- like high fructose corn syrup and whole wheat breads did.

Reply: #2
2
Reply to comment #1 by Kris
John
January 22 2018 1
You are absolutely right. Taxing is never a solution, limiting the amount of sugar in products is much more effective.
3
Mo Ronga
January 23 2018 1
The sugar taxes are not working at all. People on those countries have not become slimmer or healthier. What's happened is that the tax has created a black market of sugar products run by criminal organizations just like prohibition in the 1920s and drugs currently. All the tax has accomplished is criminalize otherwise law abiding citizens and provide new income streams to organized crime.
4
Ahmed
January 23 2018 1
It’s a tall ask to expect governments to intervene to help in taking measures towards reducing or controlling the sugar epidemic.
From growing, (wheat, corn & soy) processing, packaging and distribution there are billions of dollars involved (thousand of stakeholders) and governments can not afford to shut or reduce the revenue stream.
It is for us to educate ourselves and make the right choices.
5
Peter Phelps
January 27 2018
The more you can stop governments doing anything in this area the better. Lets learn the lessons of the last 40 years and stop governments telling us what we should and should not do.

Sugar

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