Experts have urged governments to tax sugar and sweetened drinks and food to protect public health. A commentary published Thursday in the journal Nature has made this recommendation as part of a widening debate among doctors and policymakers about food fiscality and health. Around 35 million people die each year of non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes and a wave of obesity is unfurling from rich countries to developing economies, say three US academics who authored the piece. A levy on added sugars would help meet the growing costs of meeting sugar-related health problems and discourage consumption, they suggest. Saudi Arabia is a major buyer of raw sugar. Consumption of sugar worldwide has tripled in the past 50 years, adding hugely to daily average calorie intake, especially in the United States. About 38 percent of all the sugar waiting to be loaded at ports in Brazil, the world's largest producer, are bound for the Middle East and North Africa, according to data from Williams Servicos Maritimos Ltda. Vessels heading to the MENA region will carry 219,350 metric tons of the sweetener from ports located in the Northeast and the Center South, Brazil's main sugar producing areas, data from the shipping agency showed. Saudi Arabia is set to receive 47,000 tons, according to the data. White, or refined, sugar for March delivery dropped 0.2 percent to $628.50 a ton on NYSE Liffe in London. Raw sugar for March delivery slid 0.4 percent to 23.51 cents a pound on ICE Futures US in New York. In the United States, the government is currently considering a soda tax that would raise the price of a can of fizzy drink by around 10-12 US cents, bringing in some 14 billion dollars a year of revenue. But “statistical modeling suggests that the price would have to double to significantly reduce soda consumption - so a one-dollar can should cost two dollars,” say the trio. Other suggestions include restricting the sale of added-sugar food and drinks in schools and letting states curb the number of fast-food outlets and convenience stores in poorer neighborhoods and provide incentives to set up grocery stores and fresh-food markets. The authors are pediatrics and obesity specialist Robert Lustig and health policy researchers Laura Schmidt and Claire Brindis, all at the University of California at San Francisco. More and more scientific evidence, says the commentary, suggests chronic sugar consumption has a slow-moving, complex but devastating role in metabolic syndromes such as hypertension and diabetes. This class of diseases cost the US alone 65 billion dollars a year in lost productivity and 150 billion in medical care, it says.
