Epidemics: WHO calls for sugary drinks tax
Print Edition
GOVERNMENTS should tax sugary drinks to fight the global epidemics of obesity and diabetes, the World Health Organization said yesterday.
A 20 percent price hike could cut consumption of sweet drinks by the same proportion, it said in “Fiscal Policies for Diet and Prevention of Noncommunicable Diseases,” a report issued on World Obesity Day.
Drinking fewer calorific sweet drinks is the best way to curb excessive weight and prevent chronic diseases such as diabetes, although fat and salt in processed foods are also at fault, WHO officials said.
“We are now in a place where we can say there is enough evidence to move on this and we encourage countries to implement effective tax on sugar-sweetened beverages to prevent obesity,” Temo Waqanivalu, of WHO’s department of Noncommunicable Diseases and Health Promotion, told a briefing.
Obesity more than doubled worldwide between 1980 and 2014, with 11 percent of men and 15 percent of women classified as obese — more than 500 million people, the report said.
An estimated 42 million children under age 5 were overweight or obese in 2015, said Francesco Branca, director of WHO’s nutrition and health department, up by 11 million over 15 years.
The US has the most obesity per capita, but China has similar absolute numbers, Branca said, voicing fears that the epidemic could spread to sub-Saharan Africa.
The WHO said there was increasing evidence that taxes and subsidies influence purchasing behavior and could be used to curb consumption of sweet drinks.
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