UK Sugar Tax - Your opinion?

Let's just clarify this is to bring the obesity count in the UK down. What I'm saying is I don't know how increasing the cost of tax on a bar of chocolate is going to change the way Brtion's eat. This is to do with people who don't eat with a healthy diet. Sure it's unfair on people who can keep themselves healthy, but we're talking about the extreme here. 3 or 4+ bars a day.

In terms of the taxman it costs about £5bn a year (probably more now) to help a obese person and that £5bn is made up of the taxpayers money.

And it is the taxman's choice to provide that money to give people healthcare. I do not accept that one can offer a gratuitous service and thereby justify intrusion into the recipient's business. I understand that levels of obesity are high, I simply don't think that justifies state control of people's diets.

I take precisely the same view regarding the draconian measures being taken against smokers.

Let's just clarify this is to bring the obesity count in the UK down. What I'm saying is I don't know how increasing the cost of tax on a bar of chocolate is going to change the way Brtion's eat.

It almost certainly wouldn't, and there is no moral justification for the state to try and micromanage the personal dietary choices of its citizens anyway.

Better education and maybe subsidising more healthy food would be a better approach.

I agree, subsidising the cost of healthy foods while increasing the cost of foods that are high in fat/sugar would be very benificial in my opinion. It would especially help poorer families who cannot afford fresh fruit and veg and instead opt for the cheaper frozen burgers/hot dogs/whatever to eat more healthily.

I agree, subsidising the cost of healthy foods while increasing the cost of foods that are high in fat/sugar would be very benificial in my opinion. It would especially help poorer families who cannot afford fresh fruit and veg and instead opt for the cheaper frozen burgers/hot dogs/whatever to eat more healthily.

Aspartame has been repeatedley proven to be safe in moderation. It's the single most independantly tested food additive in history. Not to mention it's basically just a fusion of two amino acids that everyone already consumes whenever they eat protein. The component parts of aspartame are already abundant in our diets from other sources, but for some reason when someone puts them together in a single compound everyone craps themselves. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17828671

Artificial sweeteners should be embraced. The fact you can take a 2L bottle of Coke which would normally contain an insane 53 teaspoons of sugar and reduce that to zero, while keeping 90% of the taste is amazing. The histeria of fear around artificial sweeteners and other additives is laughable, considering we have such a wealth of knowledge about how addictive and harmful all forms of sugar are in large quantities. Makes me laugh when people see me drinking diet coke and try to smugly tell me how 'diet coke is actually worse for you y'know', quite often the same people that i see smoking and drinking alcohol to excess.

Artificial sweeteners taste like ****, nothing compares to good old sugar. Take a look at the new sprite - it is ****ing horrible, I will never drink sprite again in my life.

Perhaps the government should stop trying to regulate everything to death.

Is that what they've done?! I was wondering why it tasted so horrendously bad a few weeks back...

I'm skeptical if this would work or not. I think one of the main reasons poor families opt for these foods is partly because they require minimal preparation. A lot of fruit and veg is actually already very cheap... Carrots are about 95p for a kilogram, kidney beans and chopped tomatoes 30p a 400g tin. Apples are like 16p each. Pasta is really cheap. If people don't have the skills of how to cook even simple meals from scratch then they're never gonna buy the food that requires prep.

They've replaced a mere 30% of its sugar with an "innovative" sweetener, ruining everything.

Maybe it's a marketing ploy: they might bring out Sprite Classic soon.

Yes, good point. But what if the bars have been split in two and bars have been split in two? But again, unfair on those who want to enjoy a chocolate bar every now and then because they'll have to pay extortionate amounts of money for a poxy bar of chocolate.

Artificial sweeteners taste like ****, nothing compares to good old sugar. Take a look at the new sprite - it is ****ing horrible, I will never drink sprite again in my life.

You have coke zero if you want to pretend to lead a healthy lifestyle (tastes absolutely horrible, too). I want these 53 teaspoons of sugar because I love sugar.

Perhaps the government should stop trying to regulate everything to death.