UK Sugar Tax - Your opinion?

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?

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Reply 1

Martyn*

They are going about this the wrong way. It will just increase the price of sugary items, and when demand drops as a result the price will be dropped and the price of some other food will increase to compensate for it. At least in theory. Instead they should be looking at reducing the cost of healthy food and stop using aspartame, fructose corn syrup and other artificial sweeteners.

Reply 2

Skip_Snip

Original post by Martyn*

But the current lot aren't exactly competent, rather than taking well thought out, measured approaches they just slap the price up...

Reply 3

TimmonaPortella

Original post by abrack

'We' don't need to do anything. The companies can cut their products in half if they want to.

Am I the only one who resents being made to pay money by the government, not to raise revenue, but because they think I shouldn't be eating that particular thing?

Reply 4

Ndella

I think it's a joke. There's sugar in pretty much everything. While they're at it, the government may as well tax people for eating apples or something.

Reply 5

tomclarky

Original post by Martyn*

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.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 6

DaveSmith99

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

Reply 7

TSRgawdlike

Seeing as they put sugar in everything these days and use the scientific designation for it on most foods you may not even know about, they sure as hell want to get the tax grab from this rather than look out for peoples health.

laughable.

If they want to ban fatties they would stop tending to the fat tubs of lard with special beds and ambulances. If you turned up to someones house and they were to large to lift, just refuse and go back to rescuing "slim" people.

They will soon adapt their ways when nobody enables their gluttony.

Also, this new corn syrup makes people addicted and fattens them up, maybe we should ban that crap for a start?

Reply 8

tomclarky

Original post by TSRgawdlike

Also, this new corn syrup makes people addicted and fattens them up, maybe we should ban that crap for a start?

High Fructose Corn Syrup really isn't that different to regular sugar, it's just a fancy name for a very cheap form of sugar produced in the US. Regular table sugar aka sucrose is a 50/50 mix of fructose and glucose. HFCS is most commonly 55% fructose and 42% glucose (sometimes the other way around), so the only difference is about a 5% swing in the ratios of the monosacharides.

All forms of sugar are addictive and will fatten people up if they eat too much of it because they all have the same 4 calories per gram.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 9

username1373182

I agree with Martyn. Instead of introducing taxes to sugar and products incorporating sugar, maybe taxes should be reduced on healthier food and drop the sky-high prices.

Reply 10

uktotalgamer

Absolutely ****ing not. Why should I be penalised because some fatty can't control themselves?

Reply 11

awe

Original post by tomclarky

You obviously seem to know what you're talking about. I don't know a thing about sugars at the end of the day and doubt most people do, although I'm not so quite to believe the 'latest' about this or that - I just stay away from it all and eat what I like to eat aha.
But what do you think of the tax?

Reply 12

username1373182

Original post by awe

Stupid. There is no need to control the sugar or change the tax on it. If people want to be "less obese" then I suggest they stop eating too much ****, simple as that.

Reply 13

Macymace

Report is new, dont make reactionary changes to policy lol,

Reply 14

Soontobesuper

Original post by abrack

But wouldn't people who are act addicted to sugar just buy two bars?

Original post by DaveSmith99

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

Thank you! Fruit and veg price have increased and whilst "sugary foods" have decreased in price. Diet is an entrenched thing, and people need educating on a long term scale

Reply 15

username1373182

Original post by Soontobesuper

But wouldn't people who are act addicted to sugar just buy two bars?

Thank you! Fruit and veg price have increased and whilst "sugary foods" have decreased in price. Diet is an entrenched thing, and people need educating on a long term scale

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.

Reply 16

tomclarky

Original post by awe

I think a tax on some very sugary foods is a good way to make money, as long as it's used to subsidise something worthwhile within the same cause.

My idea would be to start with a tax on excessively sugary items where there are already no added sugar/reduced sugar versions of the same thing, like with fizzy drinks, squash, yogurt, ketchup and baked beans, to really try and encourage people to switch to buying the lower sugar option.

When it comes to things like chocolate, cakes and biscuits, it's very difficult to significantly reduce the sugar in these items without ending up with a vastly different product thats dry and crumbly, because the sugar is acting as more than just a sweetener, it's part of the chemistry of the manufacturing process, so i'd be wary about punishing people for wanting to buy this kinda stuff. For these, i'd begin with banning any kind of multi-buy offers in supermarkets and try to restrict advertising, especially to kids and see how that goes

Ultimately though, it just comes down to transparent and truthful education to the next generation of children.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 17

TimmonaPortella

Original post by abrack

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.

It's unfair on everyone. If someone has a healthy lifestyle generally, exercises, has a balanced diet, etc, why should they pay more for chocolate, even if they eat some every day?

Why should they pay more anyway? What on earth has it to do with the taxman if I choose to eat myself into oblivion? Providing me with healthcare doesn't make my business your business. If you have a problem with the cost, take away my healthcare. Otherwise, deal with it.

Reply 18

captain.sensible

nagging nanny statist government trying to control people and claim credit for the effects of which they've coerced out of idiotic people who are too lazy or stupid to change their bad habits, while at the same time, economically burdening innocent, healthy and responsible individuals and making them poorer, which is not something the government is here for.

Reply 19

username1373182

Original post by TimmonaPortella

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.