Sugar Tax Essay

Just recently I have been hearing a lot about sugar in our foods and how countries have made a sugar tax on fizzy drinks and this made me think about how effective the sugar tax in decreasing health problems and obesity. To learn more about how this works, I have decided to do my research report on this. My four key questions are; ‘Why has the disapproval of sugar in our foods/drinks amplified so quickly recently?’, ‘Will introducing the sugar tax tackle the issue of obesity? /children? /adults?’, ‘How effective is the Sugar tax and what improvements could be made to it?’ and finally, ‘Why should the government decide what we can eat/drink by putting a tax on it?’

How effective is the Sugar tax and what improvements could be made to it? …show more content…
According to the National Institute for Health Innovation, “a number of countries have implemented taxes on soft drinks or sugar-sweetened beverages, and research published recently in the British Medical Journal reported that a 20% sales tax on sugar-sweetened drinks could reduce the prevalence of obesity in the UK by 1.3% and reduce the prevalence of overweight by a further 0.9%. I think this is a notable stat because this shows evidence that the introduction of Sugar Tax in the UK has decreased the obesity rate. A blogger from debate.org stated that “Adding a sugar tax will not help curb obesity. People will buy it regardless of the price. It is a serious problem that people will buy no matter what the price is”. I do not agree with this statement because after thinking about how I purchase my drinks and food, I believe a tax on sugary foods would help limit obesity. This is because many times I have decided to buy unhealthy foods because it is cheaper and also mostly all unhealthy sugary foods are cheaper than healthy foods. If the prices were similar because of a tax it may create more people to go for the healthy