Experts using a British medical journal as their forum have launched a discussion on whether a tax on sugar could help in the ongoing battle against obesity.
They were responding to a call by the British Medical Association for a 20 percent tax on sugar-sweetened sodas and beverages, which would be used to subsidize the costs of healthier foods such as fruits and vegetables.
One expert, university professor Sirpa Sarlio-Lahteenkorva, who is also an adviser to Finland's Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, suggested such a tax could reduce sugar consumption.
"Increasing evidence suggests that taxes on soft drinks, sugar, and snacks can change diets and improve health, especially in lower socioeconomic groups," she wrote in The BMJ.
Levying taxes on certain food categories that are often part of poorer diets could be "practicable because they are simple to administer," she said.
Taxes on alcohol and tobacco have been in place for decades, and their wide use has demonstrated reduced consumption of those substances, she believes.
However, she notes, food is a necessity—unlike tobacco or alcohol—and using taxes to improve dietary habits would be much more complicated for that reason.
Still, she suggests, a tax on sugar contained in any product could be acceptable "because it would treat all sources equally."
It might also make manufacturers consider a reformulation of their products with less sugar, thus avoiding the effect a tax would have on their bottom line.
The food industry has responded to such proposals by saying any consumption tax would be unfair and ineffective, and would damage the industry, possibly causing job losses.
Sarlio-Lähteenkorva notes that similar arguments have long been used by the tobacco industry to oppose taxes on its products, but suggests governments should not let that sway them.
"We need fiscal policies that take health seriously," she said. "Governments must tackle the related adverse health effects, such as diabetes, coronary heart disease, and hypertension."
Other experts argue that such taxes, while a positive proposal in principle, would be economically ineffective.
Jack Winkler, a professor of nutrition policy at London Metropolitan University, cites British studies that found a 10 percent sugar tax would reduce the average personal intake by just 7.5 milliliters, less than one sip of a sugar beverage.
"Effects of this size will not reverse global obesity," he suggested.
