Sugar has become the Food Industry’s “Tobacco Moment”

Taxing Sugary Beverages in the UK would result In 180,000 Fewer Obese Adults; Mexico Acts First
 
Oct. 31, 2013 - PRLog -- On Halloween, we have two things to celebrate:  1) a new study published in the British Medical Journal (http://group.bmj.com/group/media/latest-news/20-201cfat-tax201d-needed-to-improve-population-health) shows that a 20% sales tax on sugary beverages in the UK would reduce the obese population by 180,000 and generate 442 million dollars in revenue for addressing public health concerns and 2) in Mexico, their Congress took this advice and passed a soda tax (http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-10-29/mexico-tackles-obesity-epidemic-with-junk-food-levy-taxes).

Dr. Adam Briggs of the British Heart Foundation Health Promotion Research Group at Oxford University, and joint author of the BMJ study, said: “Sugar sweetened drinks are known to be bad for health and our research indicates that a 20% tax could result in a meaningful reduction in the number of obese individuals in the UK. Such a tax is not going to solve obesity by itself, but it could be an effective public health measure and should be considered alongside other measures to tackle obesity in the UK.”

Alarm bells have been ringing in the scientific community for years over the increasing use of industrial sugars such as High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS).  One of the bell-ringers has been Dr. Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of California, San Francisco, who specializes in treating obese children. Lustig authored a best-selling book called “Fat Chance (http://www.us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,978...)” about obesity and chronic disease and gave a lecture called “Sugar: The Bitter Truth (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM),” seen by 4 million viewers on YouTube.



“For the first time in human history, chronic non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes pose a greater health burden worldwide than do infectious diseases, contributing to 35 million deaths annually,” Dr. Lustig warned. According to the International Diabetes Foundation, 20-25% of the world’s adult population has metabolic syndrome and they are twice as likely to die from and three times as likely to have a heart attack or stroke compared with people without the syndrome. A groundswell of scientific evidence shows that the flooding of the human diet with sugar -- the average person in the U.S. is now consuming 22 teaspoons of sugar per day and it should be 7-9 teaspoons.  It isn’t just the overload of calories; Lustig presents compelling evidence that high sugar concentration acts as a liver toxin, similar to alcohol, when consumed at high doses, and it is affecting human health on an unprecedented scale.

Dr. Lustig provided testimony to the Mexican Congress on October 15, 2013 in support of a tax on sugary beverages. According to the World Health Organization, 70% of Mexicans are overweight, and now leads industrialized nations in obesity. It is no coincidence that Mexico also has the dubious honor of being the world's largest consumer of soft drinks. The health consequences of sugar are taking a hefty toll on government finances around the globe. In 2011, 1.2% of the Mexico's GDP was used to treat obesity-related diseases such as diabetes - the same percentage as Canada spent on its entire military.  Sugar is not just a health hazard, it is an economic hazard.

Taxing sugary drinks is now being proposed as a public health measure in many countries for a number of reasons. Sugary beverages have been shown to increase the risk of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and tooth decay. They do not suppress appetite, so consuming sugary drinks is unlikely to result in a reduction of intake of other calories. There are no beneficial nutrients in sugary drinks (indeed there is not one biochemical reaction that requires dietary fructose), so reducing sugar consumption would not remove important nutrients from the diet. And from a legislative perspective, sugary drinks can be clearly defined, UK researchers say.

The debate over sugar is heating up and becoming the food industry’s “tobacco moment.”  Initially perceived as innocuous, sugar is increasingly scrutinized by global health officials, as new studies point to a strong link between excess consumption and the twin epidemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Even global finance institutions are paying attention. Credit Suisse weighed in on the debate this month with the release of a sweeping report (https://doc.research-and-analytics.csfb.com/docView?langu...) on the issue entitled, “Sugar: Consumption at a Crossroads (https://doc.research-and-analytics.csfb.com/docView?language=ENG&source=ulg&format=PDF&document_id=1022457401&serialid=atRE31ByPkIjEXa/p3AyptOvIGdxTK833tLZ1E7AwlQ).” With growing public awareness of the debate surrounding sugar, obesity and diabetes, "a structural decline in sugar consumption" is on its way, according the Credit Suisse Research Institute.  The report shows that over the past 30 years, the global average daily sugar consumption per person has risen 46 percent to the equivalent of 17 teaspoons, which is nearly double the maximum level recommended by the American Heart Association. Worldwide consumption of sugar has tripled during the past 50 years and is viewed by leading scientists as a key cause of the obesity pandemic. The report states that 30-40% of healthcare expenditures in the USA go to help address issues that are closely tied to the excess consumption of sugar and argues that regulators should adopt strategies from the battle against smoking to fight the looming war with sugar.

Dr. Lustig remarked, “Processed foods and drinks with added sugar should be avoided to achieve optimal health. The UK study on taxing sugary beverages provides compelling new evidence that added sugar in the food supply should be controlled like alcohol and tobacco in order to protect public health.” Obesity, Lustig argues, is just one indicator of the damage caused by the toxic effects of gross amounts of added sugar in the human diet.  Lustig underscores the complexity of the problem:  “Forty percent of people with metabolic syndrome, a disorder that leads to diabetes, heart disease and cancer — are not clinically obese. As long as the public thinks that sugar is just ‘empty calories,’ we have no chance in solving this. The fact that children now get these chronic metabolic diseases almost as frequently as adults is a major cause for alarm. How many studies like this will need to be presented before the food industry starts to take responsibility for the harm it is causing?”

In 1980 in the USA, there were no children with type 2 diabetes. Now there are 25.8 million children and adults in the United States—8.3% of the population—that have diabetes and that number is growing quickly. In the last 15 years diabetes cases rose by 50 percent or more in 42 different states — and by 100 percent or more in 18 states. Alarmed by increasing numbers of children presenting with severe obesity, type 2 diabetes, and other chronic metabolic diseases, Lustig and others have formed a global health organization called the Institute for Responsible Nutrition (http://www.responsiblefoods.org/) whose mission is to arrest the pandemic of diet-related disease with education, research, advocacy and action.

UK Contact - UK Study Author
Dr. Adam Briggs +44 (0)7765 073857 or adam.briggs@dph.ox.ac.uk

USA Contact (Available for comment on the UK study or on the Mexico Soda Tax)

Dr. Robert Lustig (415) 595-7225 or rlustigmd@earthlink.net

Media Contact
Wolfram Alderson
***@responsiblefoods.org
(415) 265-5306
End
Source: » Follow
Email:***@responsiblefoods.org Email Verified
Tags:Sugar, Diabetes, Tax
Industry:Health
Account Email Address Verified     Account Phone Number Verified     Disclaimer     Report Abuse
Institute for Responsible Nutrition News
Trending
Most Viewed
Daily News



Like PRLog?
9K2K1K
Click to Share