Sweets, cakes, chocolate … Children and adolescents are generally fond of sugar. But it’s the sugary drinks that get them the most. According to a British study, children aged 4 to 10 swallow half a tub of sugar per year on average just by their consumption of these drinks. For teenagers aged 11 to 18, it’s even an entire bathtub!
A situation that worries the research organization Cancer Research UK UK. The establishment was based on data from a national survey carried out across the Channel on a thousand people, the National Diet and Nutrition Survey. Between drinks and sugary foods, little Britons consume three times as much sugar than the acceptable limit, and twice as much just for sugary drinks.
Introduce a “soda tax” to reduce obesity
Hence the interest, according to Alison Cox, director of prevention at Cancer Research UK, of the “soda tax”. A recent study by this organization had already show that a tax of 20 cents per liter of drink could prevent 3.7 million cases of obesity in the next ten years. However, obese children are five times more likely to become obese adults than healthy children. It is therefore essential to start prevention from an early age.
For Alison Cox, “the effect of a small tax on sugary drinks is enormous, and that would encourage manufacturers to reduce the amounts of sugar in these drinks”. But the effects would be increased tenfold if the government at the same time banned advertising of “junk food” on television before 9 am, when many children are in front of the small screen.
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