Irish Heart Foundation: Sugary drinks tax 'a no-brainer'
The Irish Heart Foundation has said a tax on sugar sweetened drinks (SSDs) 'seems like a no-brainer to protect our children' against obesity.
The national charity fighting heart disease and stroke again urged the Government to implement the tax after a HIA-commissioned report found that a 10% tax on sugar sweetened drinks had the potential to reduce the number of people who would become obese or overweight in Ireland by 14,000.
The recent report by the EHN (European Heart Network) on Diet, Physical Activity and CVD Prevention presented a raft of different areas for policy action, including:
Reformulation of food products to reduce the salt, saturated fat and added sugar content of foods and portion size;
Controlling advertising of unhealthy foods aimed at children;
Economic tools (taxes and subsidies) and pricing strategies to make healthier foods more affordable and appealing;
and to make less healthy foods more expensive.
Mr Barry Dempsey, Chief Executive of the Irish Heart Foundation said the results of the health impact assessment confirmed it is time for the Government to get serious about tackling the problem of obesity in this country.
He said: “Obesity is a major public health burden costing the state €1.1bn a year and it is putting children and adults at greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease, the number one cause of death here. Ireland is facing a grim prospect that if we continue to ignore policies to tackle obesity, we will start to see a reversal in the reductions in mortality from CVD achieved over the last 50 years.
“Sugar sweetened drinks have little or no nutritional value and they are packed with calories. The introduction of a tax to drive down consumption of these beverages seems like a no-brainer to protect our children.”
Renowned international expert Dr Mike Rayner, Director, British Heart Foundation Health Promotion Research Group Department of Public Health, University of Oxford, estimated that a 10% tax on sugar sweetened beverages could potentially lead to a 1.25% reduction in obesity.
This would reduce the number of obese adults by around 10,000 in Ireland and the total number of adults who are overweight, including obese, by 14,000.
The effects on calorie intake and therefore on overweight and obesity would be greatest in younger age-groups and regular drinkers of sugar sweetened beverages.
Meanwhile main author of the HIA report Dr Noelle Cotter, Institute of Public Health in Ireland, added that on average every person in Ireland is consuming 83 litres of sugary fizzy drinks a year, with teenage boys as the country’s biggest consumers.
The report found that 15% of two- to four-year-olds in Ireland are regarded as overweight and 3% obese.
For adults, more than 1 in 3 is overweight and 1 in 4 is obese.
