To think there's never a bad time for a sugar tax

[Time2Rise]

I just heard a(nother) politician on the radio say now is not the right time for a sugar tax, due to the cost of living crisis. At the same time, he was expressing outrage at the high rates of tooth decay in children and pledging tooth-brushing lessons in primary schools. Surely a cost of living crisis is a perfectly reasonable time for a sugar tax? When families are struggling financially, it's irresponsible to appease them with cheap sugary treats that damage their children's health.

I'm also wondering why purchased sweet food is just so sweet. I don't buy this sort of thing but in weak moment at work ate a jaffa cronut thing. It was like a bucket of sugar which was so unnecessary. Maybe there should be some kind of limit on sweetness to try to wean people off it. My home made cakes aren't that sweet.

Exactly. Threads here show many can't even access an NHS dentist and cannot afford private care. A sugar tax is not the solution.

I think there needs to be something that reduces sweetener usage too and ensures "sugar" covers things like fruit reductions that are like sugary syrup.

All that happens at the moment is sugar laced versions get replaced with equally/more sweet tasting versions full of sweeteners, or "healthier" versions sweetened with fruit reductions. We need to get our palates used to less sweet foods.

I do think that tooth brushing should be taught in schools in deprived areas.
So many families don't prioritise good brushing and when kids are out of their routines like school holidays, they miss days of brushing their teeth!
I don't know what can be done because pretty much everyone knows you have to brush your teeth regularly. All over the world, in every culture, people brush their teeth. Yet so many don't have it as a regular habit and so don't insist on their dc doing it regularly.

I'd want to see proof that toothbrushing and deprivation are linked.

But I wasn’t made to brush my teeth yet I brush my kids teeth? I don’t get this not part of their routine thing everyone knows we need to clean our teeth in fact surely it is even more important now when it’s going to cost people thousands to fix them, I just think it’s completely lazy parenting

This. Tried to buy fizzy drinks for Christmas. Can't bloody buy any (except coke) without sweeteners even if you pay higher prices. Sweeteners are not good for you and raise blood sugar/contribute to obesity anyway and some are carcinogenic. I don't want to eat them at all but don't have that option on the rare occasions I drink a fizzy drink.

Plus it's just a tax on the poor.

That's not the only time it's an issue. DS is autistic and limited in what he eats.

DS also does not attend school full time or sleep well, meaning we have to juggle our lives around his needs and work. We are exhausted. We make crap food choices sometimes because we don't have the energy to spend 30 minutes sorting out food. Sometimes we don't have that 30 minutes either.

San Pellegrino "Classic" is what you need. The old fashioned full sugar version that the rest of Europe still drinks. Lovely. I also buy things like Bottle green cordials and mix with fizzy water. Sorted.

Taxing food, as others have said, is not the answer. Education and knowledge is. Now, when we have soooo much information on TV and online about healthy and cheap eating, you could argue that anyone really can do it..... For that I have no answer sadly.

Better sugar than all the other shit.

Sure, sure, let's make all the cheap foods even more expensive.

We'll make the expensive foods magically cheaper though. Right? Oh, wait...

Poor people are not all time rich. Plenty of them are financially poor as well as time poor. They cannot buy a bunch of fresh ingredients (cannot afford them) and cook into some nutritionally balanced meal (don't have the time, also might not be able to afford the cost of cooking, and might not even have access to kitchen facilities if living in temporary accommodation or homeless).

You're also forgetting that not everyone even knows how to cook, beyond shoving things in an oven and hoping for the best. I don't know about you, but I didn't get any cooking lessons at school, and I didn't get any from my parents either. If I didn't like food enough to figure out how to make it, I wouldn't know how to fend for myself in a kitchen.

Then don't forget all the 'picky eaters'. Some are picky. Some have allergies and only eat their safe foods, and some have ARFID. How quick do you think it would be for either group to get diagnosed and get help from the NHS?

Let's circle back to allergies. Shall we ditch this product for this nutritionally balanced one? Oh, wait. It has an allergen in it. Not everyone's allergens are one of the 'main' ones, so there's loads of tedious ingredient reading, and the need to buy brands you don't really want to, because they're the only ones you can eat. You don't get extra help for living with allergies. Some people used to get certain foods on prescription - that's been done away with in most of the UK.

If you actually care about poor people...

Cut VAT on their essentials like food bought from the supermarket.

Increase the personal allowance for people with diagnosed medical conditions like allergies, coeliac disease, IBS etc so they can afford to buy food that won't make them sicker (bonus effect: will reduce the strain on the NHS by tackling the source rather than the symptoms).

Improve access to NHS doctors and dentists so it is not impossible to register, they can actually be seen, and there aren't loads of hidden costs (bonus effect: preventative medicine can be cheaper than treating when things have already gone to shit, and by investing more in our NHS services, we might retain more good clinicians).

Scrap the cost of prescriptions throughout the UK (bonus effect: again, it's preventative).

Provide basic cooking lessons in school using cheap ingredients (apart from giving people more options in the supermarket, it might reduce obesity and again, that's a win for the NHS).

Provide more tax relief/benefits to the working poor so no one working needs to use a food bank to survive. (No one should need to use a food bank at all, but it feels even more ridiculous that some people who work genuinely do have that level of hardship.)

None of the above appeal? Oh, sure. Let's just tax their food even more. In a cost of living crisis. That makes total sense.

For those who are really against any additional regulation/tax this podcast is well worth a listen to
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5xeI6N6Z7SxCO88Tys2BEG?si=gZlrj9PPT2almEhScYD5Fw

Terrible idea

All it will do is increase the amount of NNS chemicals being consumed.

The safety of these chemicals is far from proven and they are already being linked to gut dysfunction and weight gain.

There should be action taken to make healthy foods cheaper and more accessible rather than something that will put more money in manufacturers pockets.

I cant eat most sweetener unless I want stomach ache/diahorrhea, so just cant eat lots of foods/drinks.
Sweetener is just as toxic as sugar but in a different way.
We need to start using less sugar not replacing with sweeteners and eventually we will get used to it. But we also need to loo at fat and salt too and again reduce slowly over time.
My concern is how much "fake" food is being added to our food instead of the more "natural" products like dairy, sugar etc.

Sainsbury's still do their classic lemonade. It is only sold in 1ltr bottles. It's often sold out though which tells its own story.

@failingupwards To be fair, most foods are already VAT exempt.

Sorry but I want the sugar even if it means people will die toothless and fat

Yes I agree with this. I understand the OP's concerns about sugar, but sweeteners are worse.

It'll take much more time and effort but if we work on understanding and addressing why people indulge in self harm we'll end up with something much more worthwhile, rather than just attacking the self harm, and kicking it's root causes down the kerb

I agree in the main. Though think there need to be restrictions with children. A bit like sugar!

If worried about dental issues they could start with making more NHS dental care accessible.

I have had to go private for the last 3 years as there's not a single NHS dentist around me taking patients and this year I can't afford it so haven't been.

Regular checks and cleanings + education for the public and affordable dental care will go far further than taking foods people are eating anyway.

Bloody ridiculous.

You don’t think we’re taxed enough?
I don’t eat sugar anyway as on keto, but I object to the support of a nanny state.

I’ll take the sugar rather than the junk that triggers a migraine with just a sip or a bite.

@failingupwards there is no VAT on foods like fruit, veg, bread, milk, rice, pasta and cakes.

However items like fizzy drinks, biscuits, popcorn and crisps have VAT on them.

Have a look at your receipt next time you go to the supermarket.

The nanny state isn't to curtail what you do except it means that the taxes you pay will be spent more efficiently e.g. it means there will be less people with type 2 diabetes at a younger and younger ages.