To think it's time to repeal the sugar tax?

The sugar tax only applies to soft drinks, not cakes nor other foods.

Sugar is in so much food, it’s basically sugar that has caused vast amounts of health problems including metabolic disorders in the western world.

Everyone demonised fat in food, so the food processing companies had to remove the fat and replace it with sugar.

As sugar consumption has risen, so has obesity, cardiovascular disease and more. Decades of spiking blood sugar creates insulin resistant type 2 diabetics and destroys the arteries.

Instead of repealing the sugar tax they should actually extend it to all food.

If you want to eat healthy avoid all sugar and processed food, and eat real natural food like people ate before WW2.

I think the opposite. Although pure sugar is refined, it is still a natural product. I'd rather put that in my system than something artificial. I feel the same way about butter and all these different spreads.

Whilst I agree that it's too soon to blame cancer on sweeteners, there is a plethora of newer evidence that sweeteners are terrible. Both on gut health and on the body's insulin response

Yabu. I've stopped consuming so much sugary crap since the prices went through the roof, if I do have sugar it's homemade cakes not shop bought. UPF needs to be their next target.

Of course sweeteners have appeared everywhere due to the sugar tax. You only have to look at what is on offer outside the UK to see that. I hate them. They taste really bitter to me and also give me a migraine. But they are so difficult to avoid now. I was thirsty boarding a train the other day and fancied something other than water. I know most of the mainstream drinks are off limits due to sweeteners so I grabbed a bottle of Purdeys that had "no artificial sweeteners" in big letters on the bottle. Took a swig. It was disgusting. In tiny small print on the ingredients list was stevia. So that's another one off my list. In most cafes and pubs the only safe non-alcoholic drink other than water is red coke. Im off to France in a few weeks and will enjoy a choice of drinks at a cafe for a change.

I agree with the poster above who suggested that in years to come we will discover the issues with artificial sweeteners. So many people have headaches, migraines, ibs and other issues triggered by them I cannot believe they are as safe as suggested. Remember tobacco used to be advertised as good for the throat. Johnson and Johnson was mired in litigation in the US for years for selling talc that was harmful to health. In the future I think artificial sweeteners will be in the frame.

Yes I'm with you on this one. I want to occasionally be able to buy myself a nice cold drink that doesn't have to be as sweet as they are, but I don't want the artificial sweetener aftertaste.

The sugar tax doesn't even work. Lots of places have reverted back to charging the same prices for sugary versus sugar free drinks. I actually wrote to the Co Op to complain that their prices were the same and got a "not interested and don't care" kind of reply back from them.

Artificial sweeteners are bloody awful. I can taste them in anything and can't stand them. When I have a sugary drink (occasionally) let me have flipping sugar.

Artificial sweeteners have been linked to cancer, dementia, bowel issues and also appear to trick your brain into raising your blood glucose levels - drinking sweeteners is linked to weight gain not loss!

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2892765/

And yes loads of manufacturers have removed some sugar and used sweeteners instead to bypass sugar tax. San pellegrino is now un-drinkable as is Fentimans. See also Ribena. The list could go on and on.

It takes some hard work and label reading when shopping to find drinks without sweeteners in. It will be the next thing people realise as extremely unhealthy.

We have fat coke in this house when needed. And we really do not drink a lot of sweet stuff but jeez, allow me to have the sugar if I choose.

It's all Jamie Oliver's fault, artificial sweetner use in soft drinks increased when he poked his nose in.

Fruit juice isn't really any healthier than any other high sugar drink.
I've had to take alot of children's teeth out who drank fruit juice or smoothies.
By juicing fruit you liberate the sugar and get rid of the roughage.
The other problem is that apples, which makes up the majority of fruit in juices , are far higher in sugar now than they used to be.
We are drinking fruit juice far more than we used to and it is another reason our children consume 3 times more sugar a day than recommended.

This. My children had the choice of fresh fruit juice or water. Sometimes I mixed fruit juice with carbonated water to make a fizzy drink. I don't know why fruit juice has become so demonised. As long as it isn't drunk to excess, and good dental hygiene is observed, it's a healthy choice.

San Pellegrino still sells the "classic". I buy from Ocado. It's the one the rest of Europe still drinks! I also only buy standard not light fever tree, and expensive natural sugar cordials. I also make my own. I buy the smaller slim cans of standard coke. I actively avoid anything with artificial sweetness, and also don't like Stevia, which they have put in Lipton's Ice Tea, and now just tastes odd.

I mostly drink water, but as a mainly non alcohol drinker, I need something a bit different occasionally.

Not sure I've ever drunk lucozade for energy

Oh another drink that's had artificial sweeteners stealth added - Lucozade! I thought it was supposed to be an energy drink? The energy in it was coming from sugar, you take some of that away & it's no longer an energy drink surely? Oh it does contain a bit of vitamin B3.... 🙄

We should legalise drugs on that basis

No-ones forcing anyone to consume 'unnatural chemicals', just change your diet, no-one needs to drink this crap

The idea that the food industry is covering up research on sweeteners doesn't make sense when you consider all the work that has gone on to remove/reduce naturally occuring molecules that have been shown to cause cancer

[Source, I have worked in an industry where many millions have been spent to minimise the levels of something that occurs naturally in cooking]

I do understand that some people have sensitivities to certain ingredients (hence labelling for things like PKU/aspartame), and some people get aftertastes from certain sweeteners.

I'd repeal the sugar tax because, like so many health initiatives it penalises those at the bottom of the income scale, and drives the silly mentality that foods are either 'good' or 'bad', rather than to be consumed in moderation.

I read the title and wondered if we were back in 1763! 😂

All the drinks companies are changing the recipes of everything. Even most “full sugar” options now aren’t if you carefully read the ingredients. It’s frustrating as I drink fizzy drinks once in a blue moon, but if I do, I want them to be a treat. They’re mostly horrible and synthetic now.

My point is, sugar tax or not, I’m drawn to buy these unhealthy processed foods that are stacked with sugar salt and/or fat. I know I shouldn’t. I’m not stupid. But I don’t exhibit sensible educated behaviour or self control, I just take the easy route of buying something I know won’t be wasted and will give pleasure. It’s dreadful parenting and role modelling. The sugar tax hasn’t changed my behaviour but not would reversing it help my health. I’m still going to buy too much of the wrong food groups.

FYI I am a child of the 70s and my upbringing was impeccable- my mum was a sahm and cooked entirely from fresh except a very rare Mars Bar and a daily supermarket yoghurt. She even made her own ice cream and cheese!

As most of you seem to be in anti-sugar tax agreement can I offer up a personal viewpoint (which I suspect no one else here will share). I’m not really proud of this, but being honest about my shopping behaviour:

when I’m in the supermarket I know that sweet treats are going to be popular with my kids. They have a long shelf-life too.

The fruit aisle of the supermarket is a nightmare. Fruit is comparatively expensive and doesn’t last well. Child A won’t eat bananas, but likes apples. Child B can only eat hard fruit if cut up due to Arfid which rules out taking apples for packed lunch. Child A prefers soft fruits in general. Both kids will only eat fruit when perfectly ripe; anything not perfect (a small mark or bruise; sourness; too soft or too hard) will be rejected and the “ick” might stop that child eating that fruit for weeks or months.

When I was a child the only fruit I wouldn’t eat was manky home grown plums and apples with worms in. My mum would slice the fruit to prove it was worm-free!

So what have I done wrong? I have done something really wrong and I tried so hard (breast feeding, baby-led weaning on home made purées). I gave in to convenience and now it is SO hard to back-pedal.

The supermarkets pedal perfect produce and inadvertently I have trained my kids to reject wonky or unexpectedly sour/soft food.

It is SO much more complex than just sugar tax. It is training a nation to demand and tolerate whole fresh foods against. How do you do that?

I started taking M&S sugarless sweets daily asi was on a medication that made my mouth very dry. This was over a year ago.
I was having severe pains in my left ribs random
ly over several months. I thought it must be due to posture or something -turns out it was the sweets. /sucralose.
The info online says they can cause pain (v vague) the other info is they can halve the microbiome in your gut.
Anyway I stopped eating then and the pain went.