Sugar Tax

People will continue to do what they want to do - taxing will make no difference. If I fancy a greasy burger, and that burger is twice the cost of a salad, I'll still buy the burger.

Once sugar has been eradicated from diets - the Gov't will move onto the next food.

If someone doesn't want to change their eating habits - that's their own choice, they accept the risks associated with such - if there are indeed any risks.

I understand that medical opinion is now moving towards the notion that people who are moderately overweight are 'healthier' than those who are their 'ideal' weight. After all what is 'ideal'?

They'll be telling us butter is better for us than margarine next

 

They have already said butter is better than margarine @clanless :-)

 

My late Father in Law ate sugar for most of his life as he had a very sweet tooth and in the latter years consumed a fair amount of Aspartamine and he lived until he was nearly 96 so it didn't do him any harm.

Mr Kandy has a cousin who has been very overweight since she was in her fifties and she is still alive and kicking at 91

My father was thin all his life,never once having an extra ounce of fat on him and he died after having a second stroke aged 61 possibly due to having high BP for years which went undetected due to him never being ill.

My late Mother in Law was thin all her life and never carried any fat and she ended up with High BP,Angina and then having a massive stroke that killed her aged 86

So at the end of the day if young mothers learnt to cook so that they could feed their kids proper meals instead of feeding them Big Macs,KFC,etc etc and the kidsand young mums did more exercise instead of spending their lives texting and watching telly then the battle would be half won.

Even these Master Chef programmes and Baking programmes load their meals they cook with loads of salt,sugar and fatty oils and I can't remember the last time I saw a slim chef on the telly

PS,I treated myself to a bag of Minstrels the other day and couldn't believe how sweet they tasted and that is someone who suffers from a sweet tooth

 

There is no way anyone can claim they weren't informed that excess alcohol is very bad for them. That's been public knowledge for at least as long as I've been around.

 

There's greater % of sugar in apples, so whatever next, a sugar tax on fruit trees?

And there would need to be an even higher tax on banana plants/seeds, as bananas have an even higher sugar content than apples.

 

The proposed sugar tax will apply to added sugar @Scrungee. Naturally present sugar is not counted.

I don't think there's any drive to stop us having sugar, as sugar is naturally present in most foods. It is meant to stop us having sugar that is not naturally present. Hopefully it will make processed food and drinks companies think too. Did you know that sugar is routinely added to baked beans? Take a super health veg (the beans), add a sauce of super healthy fruit (tomatoes), then ruin it with sugar. Totally unnecessary. If made soaky beans in tomato sauce lots of times using all natural ingredients and never added sugar, and its delicious.

 

Well I like Baked beans just as they are, too many foods on sale are being sodded up because they take the fat out, they take the salt out, they take the flavourings out.
They usually exist in manufactured food for a reason, ie. it makes it taste better.

Now they want to take sugar out of everything.

When will people just start becoming responsible for their own actions and stop pigging out on certain products.

If they want to die, just let em.

 

Common sense has to be educated to some people

 

Lots of sugar in tomatoes, so seems like complete nonsense to add sugar to beans and add tax, but add exactly the same amount of sugar in tomato sauce to beans and add no tax.

 

Sugar and MSG is added to processed food for either or both of these reasons: to mask the fact that they are horrible and/or to make their product more addictive than their rivals product.

On the latter point, there is on going debate as to whether sugar is clinically addictive. However there is solid science that shows that it activates the 'reward' centre of your brain, stimulating you to want more. There is also some science (still early days) to suggest that when sugar combines with fat, it switches off the signal that you're full, thus driving you to eat more.

I'd prefer my baked beans to have no added sugar, but I don't have that option. If you prefer yours loaded with sugar, you will always have that option. You can pour on half a bag if you wanted to.

 

Another example of what a nonsense taxing added sugar would be:

Canned fruit in 10% sugar syrup = unhealthy added sugar = taxable

but,

Same canned fruit in 16% sugar grape juice = natural, healthy no added sugar = non-taxable.


Or there's no added sugar Raisins and Sultanas that have the same sugar content as Mars Bars.

 

Just a thought, but if added sugar became taxable, it would potentially lower demand, which potentially frees up crops of sugar beet and sugar cane for biofuel production, which potentially lowers the cost, which potentially helps the government meet their aims of minimum 2% biofuel at retail petrol stations without the eco warriors complaining about land use for said biofuel production.