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

[Citrusandginger]

It's been a soapbox subject of mine for a while that it's difficult to buy drinks without artificial sweeteners since lots of products have been reformulated to reduce the sugar content.

Now UPF and artificial sweeteners are being looked at, as very sadly the incidence of bowel cancer has increased in younger people.

I was brought up in the 70's and while we mostly had home cooked foods, we also had angel delight, Vesta meals, and plenty of other chemical foods. The one thing we didn't have was Diet Coke. We had full fat coke on high days and holidays but the only drinks with artificial sweeteners were marketed for people with diabetes.

I personally gave up sweeteners about 18 months ago and have found it has reduced my sugar cravings overall, so I can see the benefits to me as an individual. My adult children drink diet drinks regularly though - and think they are invincible. I'm worried that the messaging that sugar is bad/so drink diet drinks is so ingrained in their generation, that this will be hard to turn around.

Surely, we need to at least be honest about the health issues associated with sweeteners and give people a choice?

Cancer cases rising twice as fast among under-50s

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/c9a913dc-63f4-4fa4-8c25-0faa3301cdee?shareToken=654498f832dfc690127f6e147c127e93

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

We should legalise drugs on that basis

Not only is fruit sold as perfect, but it's mostly available all year round. Growing up, strawberries were available for just a few weeks each year and so they were more of a treat.

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.... 🙄

Not sure I've ever drunk lucozade for energy

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

So you agree with avoiding artificial sweetners?

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

And yet I still have to check labels on almost all foodstuffs. Hard to find a yogurt with no artificial sweeteners. Some tomato sauce has sweeteners. I was very ill after eating some ice cream at work (school dinners) - checked the ingredients….. artificial sweeteners!

Unfortunately artificial sweeteners aren’t one of the things that have to shown in bold on ingredients or menus.

That's nothing at all to do with the sugar tax.

But blood sugar levels and insulin levels are 2 different things?

Like others, it's not so much the money that pisses me off, it's having the shits after consuming artificial sweeteners that have been secretly added to something that's not a diet drink.

Yeah as full fat Pepsi. Only it's got sweeteners. So annoying. Why can't these be an official allergy listed product. And why can't full fat drinks BE full fat.

I think the sugar tax that is applied to soft drinks (the official name is the soft drinks industry tax) should be applied to all products - the amount of hidden sugars in jars of cooking sauces and pre-prepared food is shocking.
a few years ago Mars even said that their Dolmio sauces should not be consumed more than once a week due to the salt and sugar in them

The sugar tax is totally pointless. No one is not buying sugary food/drink because it costs a few pennies more. This is just a thinly disguised revenue collecting exercise.