Jamie Oliver and his sugar tax

[IsThat]

Pub grub, school meals chef know it all!

Turns out he was wrong about replacement of sugar.

It's not JO's fault that the manufactured scrapped the full sugar version rather than introduce a sugar tax friendly version too. They could call it "classic" or "original" version

Obesity is a major issue and a lot of people are getting too many calories from their drinks. The restrained people on here who have a sugary drink once a week are a minority ime If there were big enough markets then they would have kept their full sugar versions as a product line for customers who can pay extra.

Science is always evolving and hopefully food manufacturers and law makers will react quickly to protect public health.

How? Just because people are clueless enough to blame the failings of consecutive governments on a celeb that highlighted an issue, doesn't mean that celebs campaign wasn't a success.

No shit Sherlock.

God the man is an idiot.

Loads of people said sugar substitutes were much worse. There was enough research on it.

I can't stand drinks with sweeteners in. I can't drink them, they taste awful, make my mouth feel horrible and give me a headache. I wish I could drink them as it would make life easier!

Asda does a good no-sweetener high juice that I use and whenever DD1 has juice I give her that too instead of the 'no sugar' stuff as I'd rather she just had a tiny bit of sugar instead. And yes even standard Pepsi now has sweeteners in as of a couple of months ago - I discovered this when I bought a can, took one sip and immediately thought I'd bought the wrong one or got a dodgy batch until I googled. But I don't like all this chemical sweetener shit in everything - I'd rather know that eating something sweet = sugar and make my own decisions from there.

I completely agree that the increasing amount of sweeteners in bloody everything is awful, and I'd much sooner just have sugar.

I'm not sure I'd hold Jamie Oliver personally accountable, though.

They could call it "classic" or "original" version

Unfortunately some of them still do meaning you still have to check the ingredients

Yep, Pepsi turned a month or so ago. It's disgusting now. I'm in a Facebook group to keep track of what's been poisoned which helps.

As far as I am concerned Jamie can go fuck himself for trying to control what people do and put in their bodies or decide what to let their own kids have. Better route wo9uld be education at the source (e.g. in schools) and keeping adults informed. His BS has done bugger all to actually help bad diets and obesity, and everything to poison people having everything pumped full of toxic sweeteners. Not to mention just sucking the fucking joy out of everything.

One entitled posh little prick who can't even cook most dishes properly shouldn't get to control what the UK decides to eat.

"One entitled posh little prick who can't even cook most dishes properly shouldn't get to control what the UK decides to eat."

What about all the "posh pricks" who are CEOs in the food industry who get to decide what the country eats? Much rather a JO type posh prick who's more aligned to what a sensible optimal diet should be for human health and wellbeing, than a cohort of posh pricks who are aligned to maximising dividends for their corporation's shareholders.

Aspartame is on of my migraine triggers, so no surprise there.

As for Jamie Oliver, I think he meant well and worked with the knowledge available at the time of his campaign.

Another area to watch is all the faff around veggie/ vegan foods: it's soo much better for you and the environment.
The thing is though, avoiding animal products involves a lot of plastics, ultra-processed food and airmiles.

My children are all in their 30s and I've always felt artificial sweeteners were worse than sugar. They all have decent teeth and not obese.

Rocks make of squash is all sugar and Rose's lime cordial but I agree it's got increasingly difficult to find drinks without artificial sweeteners and I hate to see baby's being fed all these no added sugar drinks😟

Shareholders or customers don't matter as once they did.

ESG redit scores do, this is social justice - sugar tax like green washing is the way to go now, it's likely why Jamie got involved, to fix his credit score.

I cant stand him, but seriously??

Interesting to see how many people are promoting the propaganda of the big food manufacturers and right wing press but not bothering to actually find out what JO said. Video linked earlier in thread if you want primary evidence.

https://www.bloomberg.com/explore/esg/?utm_medium=msft_search&utm_source=pdsrch&utm_content=EMEA_ESGAwareness_2023&utm_campaign=769198&tactic=769198&msclkid=3a326608abe618c691490295c49a374c&utm_term=score%20esg

He as on the brink of going under, so he did some social justice to gain more credit with the sugar tax campaign, I guess?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10388385/Jamie-Olivers-1-75m-windfall-hard-swallow-suppliers-owed-millions.html

The message i always got from people is to cut added sugar. Not to replace the sweet taste with other chemicals. Unnatural chemicals that we are not used to taking is going to have detrimental effects to us

Shareholders or customers don't matter as once they did.

Weird take - shareholders own the company of course they matter.

I managed to find some fizzy fruit water which doesn't have either sweeteners of sugar in it because I've been doing an elimination diet to try and get in control of my autoimmune disease. The best one, imo, is by Highland Spring and they do sparkling water in blackberry and plum, or pear and elderflower - it's nicer than some of the other brands which just taste of very little. Also, Nexba Kombucha which is really nice and I think it tastes like shloer, you can't drink gallons of it because it's probiotic but it's a lovely fruity fizzy drink, very flavourful, and there's no sugar or sweeteners in it. It took me a while to find these so hopefully might be useful to anyone looking to make a switch.

I always avoided sugar free options as a child after my brother slept walked after having sugar free medicines.

When I was in twenties I had two episodes of nightmares where I thought I was being attacked whilst in bed. They were exceptional vivid. Fortunately I was with people I absolutely trusted and they gradually woke me.

The common thing with both was I'd had unwittingly had a drink with aspartame in that day and didn't put two and two together until afterwards.

I try and avoid it but it has become increasingly difficult whilst eating or drinking out.

I am not in the least bit surprised by the WHO news. I've said there's a problem for a minority of people for years.

I gather, it all changed around 2015.

As individuals we have a credit score, so do businesses. They pretend to care about social justice issues, the environment and governance.

My simplistic understanding is, governance includes recruitment of woke young staff in departments to implement social justice and environmental issues.

This is why we have literature being rewritten for sensitivity, Bud light and so forth.

Most of these companies could not care less about these issues, if they don't gain good index points from places like Stonewall they can't get credit.

I try and avoid it but it has become increasingly difficult whilst eating or drinking out.

I find this really surprising, what restaurants are you eating in where it's difficult to avoid sweeteners. Or do you mean in the drinks?

Scottish government and English local authorities.

@Oblahbla I think policy experts were the last to enter the conversation, yes. And part of that blame lies with them for their failure to recognise a coming storm, but part lies with irresponsible celebrities who push agendas that seem great in isolation but result in poor outcomes. There is a huge difference between doctors, medical research etc and people who study human and firm behaviour.

'he IARC safety review was conducted to assess whether or not aspartame is a potential hazard, based on all the published evidence, according to a person familiar with the matter. However, it does not take into account how much of a product a person can safely consume.
That advice comes from a separate WHO expert committee on food additives, the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (Jecfa), which has also been reviewing aspartame use this year. It is due to announce its findings on the same day the IARC makes public its decision, on 14 July.'

Above from the Guardian. Let's wait to see what's advised re: consumption levels before panicking.

Thank you, that's very helpful and interesting.

That crap was never yoghurt or have you not read the ingredients?