UK Sugar Tax - Your opinion?

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The thing is, chocolate, crisps, sweets, pizzas, burgers etc. should be treated as luxuries, but because they are so cheap these days people don't treat them as such and so overindulge in sugary and fatty foods. If the price is put up then (maybe) people will start treating these things as "treats" or "luxuries" again.

Yes... buuut.. the makers of the food (I can't remember the word..) should rise the price at their consent, it shouldn't be a governmental thing IMO.

Reply 41

CEKTOP

Original post by tomclarky

When most people say that diet drinks tastes horrible, they usually already knew it was a diet drink to start with, and had some kind of inherent dislike towards the marketing of those sorts of products and so the bad taste can be attributed towards a sort of placebo effect/confirmation bias. I've drank diet drinks my whole life and think they taste amazing, personally, so i guess it partly depends on what you're used to.

If companies changed food recipes without telling anyone i doubt that many people would notice the difference.

Total bull****, regular coke and diet coke don't have anything in common taste wise, same goes for anything else. When I first tried the new sprite I was unaware of the fact that it was new. What I was aware of is that it tasted horribly.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 42

username1373182

Original post by xoxAngel_Kxox

Don't agree with the tax. Why should people who eat sugary things as part of a healthy diet have to pay more because others are uneducated or can't control themselves?

Yes, annoying. I'm perfectly healthy myself, but when I want a chocolate bar once in a while I don't see why myself and others with healthy diets should have to pay an extra amount for something a select few have brought upon themselves!

Reply 43

tomclarky

Original post by CEKTOP

Total bull****, regular coke and diet coke don't have anything in common taste wise.

Again, that is subjective and is heavily influenced by what you're used to.

Because my mum always bought sugare free versions of drinks, that's just what i grew up drinking. And to me, they taste great. Do full sugar versions tatse better? Yes, but only slightly and not definitely not enough for me think it's worth the huge amount of sugar that comes with it.

Stick to what you drink by all means, but when it comes to the kids of the future, i think that, like me, they should be encouraged to drink sugar free stuff.

Reply 44

username1373182

I absolutely detest sugar-free soft drinks. But, if everyone has normal coke as part of a balanced diet, whats to worry about?

Reply 45

username1373182

Regardless, sugar free or whatever you want to call it is effectively just as bad as normal versions. INFACT, sugar free is probaBly worse because of the fact that the sweeteners are all artificial. Sure, sugar is, but at least is has an un-artificial base to it.

Reply 46

tomclarky

Original post by abrack

I've already completely refuted this whole argument on the first page. Your post is just a fallacious appeal to nature - assuming that artificial sweetners are bad just because they are man made.

There is no evidence that artificial sweeteners are harmful in the amounts used in food. Whereas sugar, we know conclusively that it rots teeth and consumed in excess it just gets stored as bodyfat and helps you on your way to diabetes.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 47

username1373182

Original post by tomclarky

Yes, that's why it's important to enjoy it as part of a balanced diet. Regardless of sweeteners or sugar, they are both as bad as each other. (If neither are not particularly bad, none are good.)

Reply 48

tomclarky

Original post by abrack

Yes, that's why it's important to enjoy it as part of a balanced diet. Regardless of sweeteners or sugar, they are both as bad as each other. (If neither are not particularly bad, none are good.)

Where's your evidence that sweeteners are as bad as sugar? It's very easy to consume excess amounts of sugar, especially when your guzzling it down in a drink. Whereas the safety levels of artificial sweeteners means that it's almost impossible to drink the required amount of soda for it have any known negative effects.

Reply 49

TimmonaPortella

Original post by tomclarky

And to me, they taste great. Do full sugar versions tatse better? Yes, but only slightly

I'm pretty sure you're in a very small minority in thinking that. I don't drink full sugar drinks, but that's because I drink coke absolutely all the time and would end up massive if I drank full sugar. Full sugar coke is on a completely different level to diet.

That's not even the point, though. 'I'm happy to put up with sugar free drinks, therefore the state should charge everyone money to do otherwise' doesn't work imho.

Reply 50

username1373182

Original post by tomclarky

http://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/food-nutrition/facts/artificial-sweetners-unhealthy-eco.htm

Reply 51

tomclarky

Original post by TimmonaPortella

I think if you did a blind taste test on someone that doesn't drink much in the way of fizzy drinks, i reckon they would say the taste is very similar.

Reply 52

tomclarky

Original post by abrack

http://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/food-nutrition/facts/artificial-sweetners-unhealthy-eco.htm

Congrats on being able to google 'sweeteners' 'unhealthy' and click on the first link.

How about finding me some independant research studies that scientifically prove they have negative effects on the body? Perhaps some studies that can equate to sugar's addictive, teeth rotting, insulin spiking, fat producing abilities?

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 53

MJ1012

Original post by tomclarky

I think if you did a blind taste test on someone that doesn't drink much in the way of fizzy drinks, i reckon they would say the taste is very similar.

Why do you think that?

Reply 54

tomclarky

Original post by MJ1012

Why do you think that?

Because i think most of the supposed taste difference is in the marketing and people's expectations of it.

Reply 55

Manitude

I would rather that companies just put less sugar in stuff so it actually tastes like the thing it's supposed to to taste of, rather than sugar!
If a tax was introduced, then the proceeds should be used to subsidise other foods. Not just fruit and veg, but meat and other 'normal' foods, too. It's no wonder people just eat ready meals when they're so cheap AND the alternative which requires more effort isn't much cheaper, or even more expensive.

For example, tonight I made three portions of sweet and sour stir fry and here's what it cost:
Two chicken breasts: £1 (frozen, pretty much the cheapest possible stuff).
Noodles: 50p (multibuy offer)
Pepper: 35p (sainsburys basics - cheapest possible)
Carrots: 10p (sainsburys basics - cheapest possible)
Onion: 30p (ish)
Sauce: 65p
Total cost: £2.90 and an hour of my time. The recipe I was using called for me to use king prawns (replaced with chicken) and bok choy (replaced with carrots and onion), which were prohibitively expensive for me.
Meanwhile, I could get three basics pizzas for the same price which I'd bung in the oven for ten minutes.

Reply 56

newusername96

why don't the muppets put a tax on breathing next?

Reply 57

zahraamalias

Original post by abrack

In my opinion taxing it is completely unnecessary. Surely we could just half the bars of chocolate and half fizzy drinks in half? Sugar is in everything so I'm not sure how the government is going to pull this off.

Your opinion?

The price of chocolate bars (and all the nice stuffs!) will just rise, but I'm not entirely sure it will stop people from purchasing them.
I'm not really into sweets or something and I consider myself having a 'healthy and balanced diet', so it's down to people's diet rather than the options available (like more expensive chocolate bars or something).

Reply 58

MJ1012

Original post by tomclarky

Because i think most of the supposed taste difference is in the marketing and people's expectations of it.

But why? The marketing on these products are "same great taste, zero sugar." People aren't buying into that **** because they have taste buds and know it isn't the "same great taste"

Reply 59

Caedus

Original post by tomclarky

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.