I hate all this sugar tax

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I heard on the news the other day that UK restaurants want to ban a refill of sugary drinks. That is just BS. A person can walk into a bar and have pint after pint of alcoholic drinks, and that can ruin relationships and everything, but apparently the stupid government have decided that obesity is far worse than alcoholism. Obesity isn't just about sugar. It's lack of exercise, everybody having at least 1 car they just drive around everywhere, and spending too much time indoors. And if it's to help kids be healthier, then that's BS too, because these days kids hardly ever play outside, they are always indoors playing on their computers or some other form of technology entertainment.

Rant over.

Good rant... I agree.

My own hates... choc bars getting smaller... manufacturers jiggering about with recipes, giving us less sugar. I don't eat a huge amount of this stuff, but when I do I expect the full on experience. Bought some fruit pastilles a few months ago... they tasted disgusting and I threw them away. Now I check the weight on choc bars... I'll eat two if they're not big enough.

For the record I'm 6'2" and slim... I self-regulate and I exercise... stop messing with my stuff!

They should just ban those sugary sodas, entirely. They have practically no nutritive value and do cause obesity, diabetes, and tooth decay. The only reason people drink them at all is massive marketing campaigns. Oh, and they have a little caffeine, but you could as well get that from coffee or tea.

But putting your waitress in the line of fire by refusing you a refill is just a cowardly halfway measure by government.

Smoking cigarettes is worse, but no, they will never ever stop that in a trillion years. Smoking causes ill effects and has no health value at all, only the placebo effect of "easing stress and depression". I hate smoking, I hate it. And I hate alcohol drinking too. At least obesity doesn't cause grief for people around you like the effects of alcohol and smoking can. (Smoking can cause health problems for those that DON'T smoke but have to consume it from others around them, and drinking can cause psychological and emotional effect on the loved ones of alcoholics).

But no, all the focus is all on sugary drinks.

I agree with you alcohol does not damage than sugar. It's funny because only two countries in Europe charge more tax on alcohol than the UK which are Finland and Ireland. And guess what? They drink more than us!

I think governments are very crafty. They often know what they can get away with taxing people on.

A sugar tax was introduced in Mexico in 2014 and sales of sugary drinks increased by 6.4% that year and by 7% in 2015.

Either you pay for taxes on sugar or you will end up paying FAR MORE in taxes to treat the health problems of those affected by obesity, of which sugar plays a large role in. There is the assumption that society can avoid paying for health problems of those in society, but in reality that cost simply reappears somewhere else in the public budget, often costing more the further down the line that the health problem is treated.

For example lets not pay for mental health services. Oh look we escaped paying for such services in our budget... but in reality you dont, the cost just reappears in the criminal justice system budget, the emergency room budgets from increased visits, not to mention the lost potential GDP of those who are sick and cant get the help they need.

I'm not anti sugar but if you look at the data, sugar has become rather insidious and there is an undeniable negative net cumulative effect on society.

Sugar in it's pure form was a rarity outside of India until the 1700s and most people couldn't afford alternative sweeteners such as honey in large quantity. A person with a sweet tooth would typically only have fruit at their disposal, and fruit has a significantly lower glycemic load than sugar and honey.

In fact, fruit has a lower glycemic load than refined breads. If you lived a few hundred to a few thousand years ago in a civilized society, the most blood sugar spiking thing you would have access to on a regular basis would be bread or rice, and you would likely eat that with vegetables or low glycemic grain like barely or lentils.

But today an astounding variety of foods are packet with added sugar, sodas, with a whopping 24 to 46 grams of added sugar, are positioned in the minds of the public is "normal" beverage choices, and candy bars are marketed as snacks.

This is a deviation from the sugar loads we have evolved to handle, and ia, in part, likely responsible for the rise in diabetes, cancer, and tooth decay in society. Significant tooth decay is not common in societies that don't have access to table sugar.

Cancerous cells uptake sugar at a rate of 30 times faster than normal cells. That's not to say eating sugar will cause cancerous cells to develop, but it's thought that cancerous cells arise in most people during some point in their life, only to be destroyed or supressed by the immune system and a variety of genes and signaling pathways. High blood sugar levels may result in conditions favorable to these cancerous cells.

Soda and candy and high sugar foods and beverages such as fruit juice are fine, but should not be consumed in more than small amounts and not on a daily basis.

The best thing you can drink for thirst is water, which can take some getting used to if you are accustom to soda. Go about a month without drinking soda or sweetened beverages and at the end of the month, you probably won't crave them anymore.

That will never happen in the US. We have way to many farmers who grow great fields of high fructose corn for the making of high fructose corn syrup (and corn chips, but mostly high fructose corn syrup) and they have connections in Congress that have put it in ALL our food. Anything you get in the US that is sweet is made sweet with high fructose corn syrup most of the time. They will even put the words "made with real sugar" on a product when they use sucrose instead.

Thing is, fructose and sucrose are both "really sugar".

The US state of Illinois tried to put a penny an ounce tax on high sugar beverages. It was hated and repealed quickly.

No, obesity is due to consuming more calories than your body needs. You don't need to exercise to lose weight or need to go on a diet to lose weight. You just need to have less calories than your body needs. You can even even eat more food that has low calorie density and you will feel full sooner and be hungry later than sooner making you consume less calories. The more active you are, the more calories you can have to maintain your weight.

Actually it can. Some people get so big they can no longer take care of their children or themselves they need their parents to take care of them or their kids become their caregivers or their spouse. Not really fair to anyone around them when in fact they are doing it to themselves and most of them are enablers because they keep giving them food. Most of the obese people are manipulative so they will guilt their family or kids and things to get their way. Some will even throw a tantrum to get their food. Caregivers that come over to take care of them are not allowed to do tough love or they can be fired for it or written up.

Bottom line here: in the USA, people love sweet stuff. The food industry makes our food all sweet because that's what sells. Its not some evil plot to destroy public health, as I do know some think.

What I find ironic is orange juice has the same tax applied to it. oj used to be considered good for you.

That was before O.J. Simpson (allegedly) did that thing to Nicole Brown Simpson.

^ Fruit juice is basically just non-carbonated soda pop.

Anyway, I drink diet soda, and no, I don't care about bullsh_t studies that "prove" artificial sweetners "cause" cancer. Apparently, everything causes cancer these days, so sanctimonious health nuts can shove it.

I'm a diet soda nut.

I was watching a golf tournament. It was preempted by the Bronco chase. I was irritated. I knew they'd catch the guy; they were going maybe 30 mph.

A golf tournament was preempted to watch a chase at 30 mph????????