So this week saw the Sugar Tax come into effect.
Soft drinks manufacturers have to pay 18p per litre if their drinks contain more than 5g sugar per 100ml, and 24p per litre if the drink contains more than 8g sugar per 100ml.
The result of course is that companies making said drinks are reducing the sugar in their recipes, in order to avoid the tax. I’m all for this, of course its a positive thing.
I don’t think anyone can argue against the fact that we need to be eating less sugar. And I’m not anti this new tax, I just think that really we need a fundamental change in the way we choose what to put inside our bodies, not just more chemical sweeteners in the things we’re already drinking.
The truth is, even if you understand all about the health issues associated with too high a sugar intake, it is difficult to not want the stuff. It’s advertised to us very effectively, it’s positioned well in the supermarket and it’s pretty much everywhere we look. When we add in the fact that it tastes good – this is why we need intervention from the top. Is an extra 20p honestly going to put you off buying the same bottle of pop you buy every week though?
Do I think the sugar tax going to have an effect on our waistline? For me, I think this could be where a calorie stops being a calorie. Is 100 calories of lower-sugar, higher-sweetener fizzy pop less unhealthy than 150 calories of higher-sugar pop? I’m really not sure.
The thing is, even drinking ‘zero calorie’ diet drinks we are still polluting our bodies with goodness knows what, which of course has an effect on our hormones and our health, and is still going to promote weight gain. I can’t help wondering about how good an idea it is for us to replace the sugar in the non-diet drinks with chemical sweeteners. Is it really going to help?