Children’s daily sugar consumption only halves one year after tax, study finds
A study has found that the amount of sugar children consume from soft drinks in the UK halved within a year of the introduction of the sugar tax.
The tax, which came into effect in April 2018, has been so successful in improving people’s diets that experts say expanding it to other high-sugar foods and drinks is now a no-brainer.
The researchpublished in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, looked at the responses of 7,999 adults and 7,656 children between 2018 and 2019 to the annual, nationally representative UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey.
This showed that the daily sugar intake of children fell by approximately 4.8 grams in the year after the introduction of the levy, and for adults by 10.9 grams.
The total amount of free sugars in children’s diet, including food and drink, was about 70 grams per day at the start of the study, but this had dropped to about 45 grams by the end.
The study found that total free sugar intake in adults was about 60 grams per day. By the end of the study, this had dropped to about 45 grams per day.
But despite this reduction, the amount of sugar consumed by adults and children is still above the recommended guidelines, contributing to high rates of tooth decay, obesity, diabetes and other diseases.
Eddie Crouch, chairman of the British Dental Association, said the sugar tax was delivering “tangible results” and was effective.
He added: “Extending it to cereals, for example, is a no-brainer for any government that cares about prevention. It doesn’t have to add to the cost of living. Where voluntary action on reformulation has failed, the levy forces the food industry to do the right thing.”
According to the World Health Organization and the British Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition, free sugar consumption should be less than 5% of a person’s total calorie intake. For adults, this would be limited to 30 grams of sugar per day, 24 grams for children aged 7 to 10 years, and 19 grams for children aged 4 to 6 years.
Dr Nina Rogers, the study’s lead author and from the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, said: “The findings from our study are encouraging and show that the UK soft drinks industry levy is associated with significant reductions in daily sugar intake in adults and children. These results are consistent with previous research showing a reduction in household purchases of sugar from soft drinks one year after the levy was introduced.”
She added: “The new UK government could consider extending the tax to other (currently exempt) high-sugar drinks, or even some foods. They could also look at restructuring the tax to apply a per gram of sugar/100ml charge rather than a threshold-based charge.”
Dr Kawther Hashem, Lecturer in Public Health Nutrition at Queen Mary University of London, said: “This new analysis highlights the importance of policies designed to improve the nutritional quality of food and drink. In particular, the UK’s soft drinks industry levy (SDIL) has proven to be an effective lever in encouraging food and drink manufacturers to use less sugar.
“Now that a new government has taken office, policymakers are urged to consider a similar levy on other discretionary products that contribute significantly to sugar intake, such as chocolate, to help steer diets in a healthier direction.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “This Government will take action to prevent disease and tackle the obesity crisis head-on, easing pressure on the NHS and helping people live better for longer.
“We will introduce strict restrictions on advertising junk food, and we will also ban children from buying sugary, caffeinated energy drinks.
“By creating a healthier society, we help create a healthy economy.”