News

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Tax and policy needed to fight sugar: Study

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The Australian Government must ‘show leadership’ by introducing a tax on sugary drinks, say health experts, as new research shows significant public support for action.
 
The Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) has called for the Federal Government to take a similarly robust approach to addressing obesity as it has to vaping and smoking, after a survey of 2800 Australian adults showed support for a tax on sugary drinks.
 
Published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health on Wednesday, the survey revealed:
 

• 83% of respondents support better labelling of sugary drinks to warn consumers that they contain added sugars
• 73% support the cessation of marketing of sugary drinks to children
• 56% believe sugary drinks should have a health levy tax applied.

 
The study’s lead author and President of the PHAA, Professor Caroline Miller, said with obesity overtaking smoking as the leading cause of preventable disease in Australia, the country now has ‘a pretty serious public health issue on our hands’.
 
‘We need a public health and policy approach to this,’ Professor Miller told newsGP.
 
‘There’s a disproportionate focus on blaming individuals and an “individual responsibility” narrative, and it’s out of step with the reality of the situation.’
 
A ‘sugar tax’ is not a new idea, with many other countries and jurisdictions in Europe and the Americas having already adopted the measure, including the United Kingdom, France, Ireland, Hungary, Norway, Mexico and Chile.
 
Following its 2018 introduction in the United Kingdom, a study found that one year later, children’s daily sugar intake had fallen by 5 grams, and adults by 11 grams.
 
The call for a similar tax in Australia is also not new. Just last year, a 20% sugar tax was among recommendations made in a parliamentary report into the ‘diabetes epidemic’ sweeping the nation.
 
Professor Miller said policy measures are now needed to help parents and protect children from being ‘inundated relentlessly by marketing’.
 
‘If kids have got 40% of their daily intake from discretionary food, things have got way out of hand,’ she said.
 
The marketing of artificially sweetened drinks and 100% fruit juices as ‘healthy alternatives’ also came under scrutiny from Professor Miller’s team, with the products given what she calls a ‘false health halo’.
 
‘There’s work to be done to help Australians understand that non-sugar sweetened beverages and 100% fruit juice shouldn’t be consumed regularly or in high quantities – improved labelling is an important first step,’ she said.
 
While the survey’s respondents overwhelmingly supported more informative labelling and less marketing of sugary drinks, their response to a sugar tax was more muted, with 56% – just over half – backing a levy.
 
‘Support for a tax is always lower,’ Professor Miller said. ‘Anything that hits the hip pocket is always going to be something that people are less keen on.’
 
She said a health levy needs to be coupled with other initiatives to support healthy eating, rather than be introduced as a standalone measure.
 
‘We’re also interested in it being a levy on [sugary drink] producers themselves, so it encourages other actions such as reformulation,’ she said.
 
‘That’s what the UK has done – put in different levies at different levels, so there’s an incentive for industry to bring sugar [levels] down.’
 
PHAA CEO, Adjunct Professor Terry Slevin, said the survey results show the ‘genuine community concern about unhealthy drinks and an expectation that the Australian Government will step in and show leadership on this issue’.
 
‘Minister Mark Butler and the Albanese Government have implemented strong and effective measures to curb smoking and vaping – we believe similarly decisive action is needed to tackle obesity,’ Adjunct Professor Slevin said. 
 
‘We know what needs to be done, now is the time to do it.’
 
Professor Miller said general practice remains a ‘highly valuable voice’ in educating patients on informed choices for themselves and their families.
 
For example, she said many people would not realise that 600 ml of soft drink contains 16 teaspoons of sugar.
 
‘Doctors have a really influential role, obviously in clinical care, they’re a really highly valuable voice, and rightly so,’ she said.
 
‘People know that soft drink is full of sugar, but I don’t think they understand how high. A lot of people have no understanding of that whatsoever – and how would they when we don’t label them clearly?’
 
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