'Sugar tax' cuts sugar intake from juice by half, survey finds



The UK government announced the Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL), a so-called

sugar tax, in March 2016 to tax drinks containing 5g or more of sugar per 100ml in order to prevent obesity and tooth decay caused by excessive sugar intake, and implemented it in April 2018. Some say that this initiative, also known as the soda tax, is pointless, but follow-up surveys have shown that sugar intake has steadily decreased.

Estimated changes in free sugar consumption one year after the UK soft drinks industry levy came into force: controlled interrupted time series analysis of the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (2011–2019) | Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health
https://jech.bmj.com/content/early/2024/06/11/jech-2023-221051

Children's sugar consumption halved since tax announcement, study finds | Sugar | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jul/09/childrens-daily-sugar-consumption-halves-just-a-year-after-tax-study-finds

In the study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, Nina Rogers of the University of Cambridge and her team looked at the sugar intake of 7,999 adults and 7,656 children who took part in the annual UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey between April 2008 and March 2019.



This study focused particularly on

free sugars , a general term for monosaccharides such as glucose and disaccharides such as sucrose. Monosaccharides themselves and disaccharides, which are made up of only two monosaccharides, can rapidly raise blood sugar levels and easily lead to diabetes, so the WHO and the British Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition recommend that 'intake of free sugars should be kept to less than 10% of total energy intake, and more ideally less than 5%.'

The study found that after the sugar tax was announced, the amount of free sugars consumed by children from soft drinks was reduced by half, and by about a third for adults.

Below is a graph of free sugar intake from soft drinks by adults (left) and children (right) between April 2008 and March 2019, with the red dots showing actual measurements and the red line showing modeled data. Sugar intake had been declining slowly before the sugar tax was introduced, but it has fallen even more since 2016, when the sugar tax was announced.



There has also been a steady decline in combined food and drink intake, with total free sugars intake decreasing from about 70g to about 45g per day for children, and from about 60g to 45g per day for adults.



Commenting on the results, Rogers said: 'It is encouraging to see that the UK sugar tax leads to a significant reduction in sugar intake in adults and children. The new government formed following the general election in July 2024 should consider expanding the tax to include other drinks and some foods that are exempt under the current system. It could also be a good idea to revise the tax so that it is levied on every gram of sugar contained in 100ml of drink, rather than a flat rate tax.'

According to the WHO and the UK Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition, adults should limit their intake of free sugars to 30g per day, children aged 7-10 to 24g, and children aged 4-6 to 19g, meaning that the 45g per day result is still above the recommended value.

Nevertheless, given the steady decline in intake, Eddie Crouch, chairman of the British Dental Association, who was not directly involved in the study, commented, 'Sugar taxes are delivering visible results and are effective. Governments interested in preventing disease should extend the tax to include cereals and other foods. This does not mean that people's costs of living should increase. It just means that the food industry, which has failed to reform on its own, will be forced to do the right thing.'

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