1y ago

Extend success of UK sugar tax to cakes, biscuits and chocolate, experts urge

www.theguardian.com

Exclusive: Co-author of analysis for WHO calls on government to control the food industry rather than being subservient to it

Archived version: https://archive.ph/56yF6

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1y ago

Extend success of UK sugar tax to cakes, biscuits and chocolate, experts urge

www.theguardian.com /society/article/2024/jun/01/extend-success-of-uk-sugar-tax-to-cakes-biscuits-and-chocolate-experts-urge

13 comments

Let's not. They'll just fill them with sweeteners instead and everything will taste like ass. Personally, whenever I have the odd fizzy drink I buy the stuff with sugar and pay the extra. The rest of the crap can get into the sea.
- Eh.. we need to stop consuming so much sugar. I want to actually have something taste good and not because it's Cocaine's milder cousin.
  
  Fair point. I get that this isn't aimed at me. I'm not a sugar fiend. But the big food manufacturers will just replace it with artificial sweeteners, which to me at least taste awful. I used to enjoy the odd Fentimans Ginger Beer, but now it tastes like hand soap and all I can thing about is that Godfather meme... "look how they massacred my boy" 😥
  
  And I don't think the government should be deciding it for us, punishing people who dare to eat or drink sugar with higher prices, nor have yet another avenue of tax to funnel into their pockets.
As someone who used to enjoy a soft beverage from time to time, however is sensitive to the taste of chemical sweeteners, fuck off.
Let people have normal sugar. Chemicals taste like ass.
- sugar is a chemical..
  
  I mean you’re not wrong, but it’s an oddly pedantic point to make. I think it’s quite clear in that sentence that I’m referring to artificial sweeteners.
  Like if I made two batches of yoghurt, one with actual strawberries, and another one with strawberry flavouring agents, would you be telling me that actually they’re both flavoured with chemicals because strawberries are themselves composed of various organic compounds?
NO!
Everything always has to make things worse for people, why do no experts ever urge anything but screwing over the poor?
What about subsidies on healthier options? What about reworking rules to help create pathways for low cost healthy snacks and sustaining foods? How about a program that enables people to have affordable or free access to locally grown produce? Fund development of platforms and technologies to improve awareness and access to healthy food?
Nope. The affluent experts decide to push something that won't affect them but will make life harder for everyone already struggling.

13 comments