• Health
  • Science
  • U.S.
  • Technology
  • Business
  • World
  • Politics
  • Entertainment
  • Sports

Building a Better World

News and information

  • Home
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us
  • Our Team

Taxing sodas to force consumers to stop drinking them, will it work?

January 7, 2016 By Jerry Newberry

Taxing sodas to force consumers to stop drinking them, will it work?

Will making sugary drinks more expensive to purchase lead to lower consumption?

Will a tax on sugary sodas force people to start drinking more healthy drinks?  Evidence from Mexico seems to suggest that it will, particularly among the lower socioeconomic groups in the country.

Mexico adopted an peso-per-liter tax on sugary drinks beginning January 1, 2014, and a new study says the tax is associated with an average decline in consumption of sugar sweetened beverages of six percent after one year, according to a report on medpagetoday.com.

The evidence is also suggesting the decline is growing, with a 12 percent decline noted in December of 2014, as compared to what would have been purchased had the tax not been implemented, says Shu Wen Ng, PhD at the University of North Carolina Gilings School of Global Public Health in Chapel Hill and his research colleagues.

The authors of the study looked at data from Nielsen Mexico’s Consumer Panel Services for the period of January 2012 through December 2014, including households in 53 Mexican cities.  Consumption of the beverages decreased across all socioeconomic groups, but the lowest group recorded the biggest drop at nine percent for the year and a 12 percent decrease in December.

The drops in consumption were greater in non-carbonated drinks when compared to carbonated drinks, causing the authors of the study to theorize since non-carbonated drinks are often more expensive, they were more easily replaced.

The group pointed out that about 70 percent of adults in Mexico are either overweight or obese, with a high prevalence of diabetes in the country, and the reduction in sugary drink consumption would likely have an affect on those rates over time.

The researchers cautioned their study was done only in cities that had a population of 50,000 or more and data on dairy drinks was incomplete prior to October of 2012.  The team added they believe the reductions would be even more dramatic in rural households, but without actual data, that was purely speculative.

They also said the purchases of sugary drinks at a restaurant or from a street vendor were not recorded in the survey data as well.

In the United States, the city of Berkeley, California, is the only area that has adopted a sugar tax.

Sharing

Facebooktwittergoogle_plusredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Filed Under: Front Page, Health

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Follow Us

Facebookrss

Search:

Recent Posts

  • NASA’s InSight spacecraft makes important course correction May 26, 2018
  • Scientists outraged at latest Trump decision May 15, 2018
  • Huge uproar erupts over major incident at Utah park May 13, 2018
  • Incredible moon discovery stuns scientists May 12, 2018
  • Authorities shocked by discovery about common painkiller May 6, 2018
  • Outrageous crocodile experiment stuns scientists May 5, 2018
  • Great Barrier Reef is too quiet, scientists say May 1, 2018
  • Massive Hiroshima bomb discovery shocks scientists May 1, 2018
  • Earth will be slammed by massive asteroid April 29, 2018
  • Teens are doing something incredibly alarming in schools April 29, 2018
  • Huge discovery in Tasmania stuns scientists April 28, 2018
  • Shocking discovery in New Jersey stuns authorities April 22, 2018
  • Huge volcanic explosion could wipe out the United States April 21, 2018
  • Huge controversy erupts over world’s hottest pepper April 15, 2018
  • SpaceX is about to do something astonishing April 15, 2018

Copyright © 2021 Jones Kilmartin Group, LLC · Metro Pro Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress